Freeze Tag
by Musically
Summary: Oogie returns with only one thing on his mind: revenge. His secret weapon? One of Victoria's new friends, who has a dangerous power that Oogie can use to take over Halloween Town. Unless, of course, someone can stop him...
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: I do not own Nightmare Before Christmas or any of Tim Burton's characters. I also failed to receive the NBC DVD for Christmas this year, so I am currently holding the Blockbuster copy hostage. Don't try to stop me! I'm a teenager on the edge of the insanity cliff!**

**Musically: _Ah, a fresh new story. Thanks to all my reviewers from "A New Girl in Town", and for new readers, I highly suggest you read that before you read this, mkay? Goooood. _**

**Lock/Shock/Barrel: _Where are we?_**

**Musically: _In my new story! Have fun...Muahahaha! (disappears in a puff of smoke)_**

**Shock: _She has problems._**

**Musically:_ (pops in briefly) Do not. (leaves)_**

* * *

Laughter came from inside the old, rickety tree house, along with high-pitched voices that echoed throughout the graveyard. If one were to get a closer look, they would see two children. They played a twisted game of tag as they came after each other with rusty, sharp weapons and cackled as they kept missing their targets. The boys were dressed as a skeleton and a devil. As they scampered through the house like a couple of rats, their female companion sat on the bed, feeling troubled.

The skeleton boy, Barrel, was it. He swung his pitchfork wildly at Lock, who slid under a loose pipe that jutted out from the wall. Barrel wasn't as lucky. The pipe caught him in the stomach as he ran forward, and pain begin to well up in his gut in the form of a terrible ache. He moaned. The pitchfork fell out of his grasp and landed with a clatter on the wooden floor. Barrel reeled around for a second or two, and then he managed to stagger to the old, broken couch that rested against the wall. His devil counterpart strolled up beside him. Lock, who had stopped running as soon as he realized that Barrel wasn't chasing him, looked his comrade over with an expression of mock concern.

"What happened?" Lock inquired. Barrel groaned pitifully, and Lock rolled his eyes.

"I ran into the pipe," Barrel wheezed. The devil snorted, and he shoved Barrel onto the floor where he landed with a thud.

"Baby," Lock scoffed. Barrel, who had partly recovered, prepared to lunge at him, but Shock interrupted them both with her words.

"No. Only a kid," she said quietly. Barrel seemed to stop mid-jump, falling to the ground with a crash, and Lock simply stared at her in question. The devil strode over to her with his tail twitching.

"What do you mean by that?" Lock asked. Shock looked at the rafters that were barely supporting the roof above them, not wanting to look at the youthful faces of her friends.

"You don't know?" she snapped. Lock scowled, but Barrel simply stared at Shock while he, ironically, climbed up a system of rusty pipes that protruded from the wall in a ladder-like fashion. He scrambled to the top. Shock and Lock were suddenly turned upside down as Barrel hung off of the pipe from his legs. The witch glanced up at him for a moment, and then she looked back at Lock.

"See what I mean?" Shock said, pointing at Barrel. Barrel stuck his tongue out at her and dropped down to the couch.

"What did I do?" Barrel asked defensively. Shock shook her head in frustration.

"We shouldn't be acting like that. Not if he's really gone," she told him. Lock cocked an eyebrow in confusion, and one of his auburn curls seemed to come undone slightly.

"I'm glad you're being specific here. Would have been really confusing if you had been vague or something," he muttered. Shock thrust her foot in his direction, but he managed to evade the pointed heel of her boot. Barrel ambled over to the two of them. Shock eyed them both with utmost disgust, and then she flopped back down on the unsteady bed on which she was laying.

"Do I have to spell it out for you?"

"It'd be nice."

"You know I'm not nice."

"Come on, tell us!" Barrel exclaimed. Shock lifted herself back up to a sitting position. Her brown eyes seemed to be aflame with agitation, and her untidy black hair seemed to crackle with electricity. She seemed to simmer down in a few moments, though. Shock strode over to a corner of a room, where something was shrouded by a large, moth-bitten blanket that was damp and odorous. She swept it away, revealing an empty cauldron.

Lock and Barrel watched in mild interest as Shock gathered some items from a cabinet and proceeded to mix them in the pewter pot. Then, a blinding flash of light came from the cauldron. The boys held up their hands to shield their eyes, but the green light faded in a matter of seconds. Shock beckoned them over to her. Dutifully, they trotted over to the witch and peered into the cauldron. All of the ingredients had somehow turned into a chalky yellow powder that lay at the bottom of the pot. Shock looked over at the two of them with wary eyes.

"Why tell you when I can show you?" she asked mysteriously. Before Lock or Barrel had a chance to ask any more questions, Shock scooped some of the golden powder out of the cauldron. She tossed it up into the air. It sprinkled down onto the three of them, and as it all landed on them, they began to feel very strange. Lock and Barrel gawked at each other as they both began to disappear. Shock, on the other hand, seemed very bored. In a few seconds, all three of them had vanished into thin air.

They materialized at the front entrance of the tree house. Something about their environment was strangely unsettling, but the boys didn't seem to notice this as they turned on Shock.

"Oh, this was useful. We could have walked out the door ourselves!" Lock told her. Shock gave him a cold look.

"Shut up and follow me. Don't bother asking questions, I'll tell you on the way," Shock explained. Then, to Lock and Barrel's shock (sorry, couldn't resist!), their friend walked through the front door as if were air. They both exchanged bewildered glances. Barrel extended a shaky hand to the door, and like Shock, it went straight through it.

"I couldn't even feel it," he breathed. Suddenly, Shock's head protruded through the door. Both Lock and Barrel yelled out in surprise, and they stumbled backwards. Shock rolled her eyes and took their hands, pulling the boys through the door.

"Come on, we don't have a lot of time," she said sternly. Shock released their hands as soon as they were inside the play house, leading the way as they traveled deeper into the dark and abandoned building. She explained the situation as they walked.

"I took us back in time, seven years, give or take. Remember when we first met Mr. Oogie Boogie?" Shock asked. Barrel and Lock shook their heads, eyes wide as saucers. None of them had mentioned the boogie man since Jack Skellington had defeated him about a few weeks ago. The mental image of his large, bulging figure had always symbolized true fear for the children, and his death wasn't about to change that. They inwardly shuddered.

"Come on. After you see this, I'll tell you everything," Shock said shortly. Lock and Barrel followed her without a word as she guided them through the dark and musty halls of the house. An old, tarnished chain swung slowly above them. It held a sharp-edged battle axe that glinted dangerously in the dim candlelight of the house. The chain snapped suddenly, and the axe dropped down onto Lock's foot and made him gasp. Though he felt no pain, he quickly removed his foot from under the blade and hurried to join his comrades.

Shock whispered, "Shh." She motioned for the boys to come to a door that she stood by. They did as they were told, both running to meet her as she disappeared into the door. Lock walked through the door before Barrel. When they were on the other side, their expressions were exactly the same: blown away.

There, crowded together by the wall, were the children themselves. They had the same clothes and faces, except the past kids wore expressions of terror as they were spoken to by a disembodied voice.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" it bellowed. It was a male's voice, one that Lock, Shock, and Barrel knew all too well.

"What are you kids doin', running around my house like this?" Oogie Boogie boomed furiously. His silhouette was flickering on the wall, but his angered face was quite clear as it raged down upon the children of the past.

"Who are you?" past Lock asked bravely. He had always been the unofficial leader of the terrible trio, no matter what Shock or Barrel had to say about it. Oogie Boogie cackled in a deep voice. A pair of red dice shot out towards the devil, and they hit him squarely on the head. Past Lock winced, rubbing the sore spot.

"Who am I? I'm Oogie Boogie, or in other words, the boogie man, owner of this fine household upon which you're currently trespassin'. And believe me, I ain't gonna stand for it," Oogie threatened them. Past Shock glared at the shadow.

"This dump is yours? It doesn't have your name on it," she spat. To her surprise, Oogie laughed coldly.

"You've got some kind of attitude, missy. It's not gonna save you this time, though," Oogie said. The shadow seemed to advance on the children, but past Barrel unexpectedly jumped forward.

"Wait!" he cried. Oogie froze, and his companions stared at him as if he were crazy. Past Barrel stood still for a minute, shocked by the fact that the boogie man had actually listened to him. Past Lock prodded him in the back. That seemed to restart past Barrel's mind, so he kept speaking to the monster in a calm and forcibly even voice.

"Can't we come to an agreement or something?" Past Barrel pleaded. Oogie's shadowy hand brushed his chin as he pondered over the proposal.

"What kind of an agreement?" Oogie asked interestedly. Past Barrel seemed to gain a little bit of confidence, so he continued in a louder voice.

"We don't have anywhere to stay. Maybe, if you let us stay here, we could work for you or something," he trailed off. Oogie appeared to contemplate this for a second or two before nodding his floppy head.

"Yeah, I catch your drift. You scratch my back, I scratch yours, am I right?" the boogie man said amiably. The children grinned nervously and nodded their heads. Oogie chuckled in a deep voice, putting his hands to his shaking, round belly.

"Looks like I won the jackpot this time! However, I won't let this act go unpunished," he stated. Past Lock, Shock, and Barrel's faces fell simultaneously. They all exchanged anxious glances until past Lock spoke up.

"What are you going to do to us?" he asked with a trembling voice.

"Nothing that bad," Oogie said loftily, "How's this? Until the day that I die, you three will all be cursed with eternal youth. You won't get a single second older until the boogie man croaks! I need my workers to stay small, anyways. Sound good?"

Before they had a chance to answer, he boomed, "Good! I'll be seeing you later then…" His shadow slipped off of the wall, leaving the three children huddled in the corner. White lightning flashed in through the window with a blinding light, and the future Lock, Shock, and Barrel all began to disappear.

Soon, they were all back at their exact same spots around the cauldron, all feeling a bit disoriented from the time travel. Lock and Barrel's faces had turned a pale white. Shock, though, looked even more irritated than she had been before.

"I'd forgotten about that," Barrel said quietly. Shock glowered at him, and she went to go sit on the bed again.

"I knew that you had. Why else would I have taken you there?" she asked bitterly. He gave her no answer, but instead went to go stand in front of her at the foot of the bed. Lock trailed behind him.

"So, why are you so angry all of a sudden?" the devil questioned. Shock looked him square in the eye, and then she shook her head.

"I'm not angry. I'm confused. You don't get it, do you?" Shock explained, her voice raising with each word. Lock backed off a bit while she kept talking.

"If Oogie had really died, then we would each have gotten seven years older by now. We're still the same age. What does that tell us?"

Lock and Barrel exchanged puzzled glances. Shock held back the urge to slap both of them in the face.

"It means that Oogie's not dead yet! God, why am I the only smart one around here?"

The boys didn't argue at her last statement, rather, they gave her blank stares in surprise.

"She's right," Lock whispered. Barrel lifted himself off of the bed.

"Then where is he?" he asked innocently. Shock shrugged.

"He could be anywhere right now," she replied flatly, "but I personally don't feel like looking for him right now."

A sort of shadow appeared to glide across the wall behind her. Sensing something disturbing, Shock twisted around to see what the matter was. Deep, echoing laughter rang through their ears and lingered in their minds as a pair of dice rolled onto the floor.

"Don't worry," Oogie Boogie bellowed, "You don't have to go looking for me now!" The children all looked fearfully up at his silhouette on the wall.

"M-m-mr. Oogie Boogie Man!" they stammered. He laughed evilly as he looked upon the terrorized faces of Lock, Shock, and Barrel.

"That's right, kids," Oogie chuckled, "Ready to play a new game?"

* * *

**Oogie: _Hey, now! Where am I?_**

**Musically: _Huh? What?...Oh, I didn't see you there. You're in my new story._**

**Oogie: _You tried to kill me off in the last one. What makes you think I'm going to do another?_**

**Musically: _I know things, Oogie. Things that might have something to do with the embarrassing alternative music incident at the Japanese casino last fall break._ **

**Oogie: _I'll do anything you want! Just don't tell!_**

**Musically: _(to Lock, Shock, and Barrel) Come on, kids. Time to hear a very entertaining story about when Uncle Oogie visited Japan!_**


	2. New Year's Eve, Halloween Town Style

**Musically: _Hi, Victoria! Welcome to your second fanfic. _**

**Victoria: _Brrrrr...It's cold out here..._**

**Musically: _It sure is. Wave to the readers, now!_**

**Victoria: _(glares) Bite me. _**

**Musically: _Um, she doesn't mean that!_ **

* * *

The streetlights began to turn on one by one. They looked like miniature orange suns standing out upon the pastel watercolors of the sunset sky, all circling around the one that was sinking down beneath the horizon. Hour after hour slipped away into the night. Soon the sky was a deep indigo shade, and the black branches of the neighborhood trees blended in with the background. Watery lights glistened in the local pool. The open gate to the tennis court banged on the hinge as a cold wind blustered past it. While most rich neighborhoods were warm, safe, and comforting, this particular one looked dreadfully eerie and frightening as it delved deeper into the hours of the night.

A girl shivered as she walked down the sidewalk. She tucked her hands into the kangaroo pocket of her navy blue sweatshirt, and on the inside she could feel the frosty touch of her fingertips against each other. Her windswept brown hair rested limply on her shoulders. It was pushed violently backwards as the next icy breeze raged past, chilling her ears and making her cheeks flush a rosy pink. She stopped for a minute under a streetlight.

The cold winds were taking a toll on the girl. Her hunter green eyes appeared dull and bored even in the warm, glowing light of the streetlamp, and an emotionless half-smile was placed on her slender, pink lips. The rosy color on her cheeks had now vanished, giving way to paleness. Though she had already eaten at a nice restaurant not too far from her home, she felt strangely empty as she stood alone under the orange light. She shivered again and continued her walk.

She couldn't feel too unhappy, though. A fleeting smile flickered across her face as she felt the folded piece of paper that rustled around in her jeans pocket. She was eager to get home now, to show this great triumph to her parents. They would appreciate her for this if nothing else. Soon, the brightly lit windows of her three-story home came into view, but her stomach sank down to her feet when she saw that there were more than two adults in the room.

The girl tromped up the cement stairs with one hand on the cold, metal railing to keep her balance. As soon as she was close enough, she jostled the brass doorknob with her hand. It was locked. She cursed quietly under her breath and fished around in her sweatshirt pocket for her house key, finding it without much difficulty. She pulled it out by the long chain that it was attached to. Both chain and key glittered despite the dim lighting with a silvery glint, but the girl didn't seem to appreciate this as she jammed the key into the knob and unlocked the door with a few twists.

Warm air blasted out towards her as she stepped inside. All around the room, people were lounging about on the modern furniture and sipping their champagne daintily. Ladies wore classy dresses and white gloves. The gentlemen, on the other hand, were clad in stiff, monochromatic tuxedos that gave them a striking resemblance to a rookery of penguins. They all chatted amiably about work and family, looking very refined as they did so. The girl, suddenly, felt very out of place.

"Victoria?" called a voice from the kitchen. The girl turned around in surprise to see her father with a drained wine glass in hand and her mother by his side. Reddening slightly, Victoria shuffled over to her parents. Her father smiled warmly at her, while her mother's expression was slightly disdainful.

"I thought you would have changed into something a bit more suitable for this evening," her mother said shortly. Victoria couldn't seem to meet her eyes, so she merely shrugged.

"I forgot that we were hosting a party," she mumbled.

"Oh, Allison, she's only just arrived. Victoria was probably about to go up to her room and change anyways, am I right?" her father said cheerfully. Victoria gave both of them a weak smile and a shrug. Her father laughed heartily, but her mother rolled her eyes.

Victoria's mother glanced at her much like she would have an old piece of food, and then she took the empty wine glass from her husband's loose grasp. She whispered something in his ear and then retreated to the kitchen. Her father nodded and walked over to Victoria, putting a friendly arm around her waist and catching her in a hug. Victoria returned the favor, even though the smell of steamed fabric overwhelmed her. As she pulled away, her father began to talk to her.

"Okay, I covered for you that time. Really, though, Victoria. How could you forget New Year's Eve? You know, you really haven't been quite all there since Christmas. Is there anything you want to talk to me about?" he said. If it were tangible, Victoria could have seen right through his concerned parent sham. Right now she'd play along.

With a smirk, Victoria asked, "Are you calling me crazy?" Her father shook his head in protest.

"Of course not. It's just, well, if there's anything you needed to discuss, I'm always here."

"Don't I know it. There is something I wanted to show you, though," Victoria told him, pulling the paper out of her pocket. After a few seconds, the badly crumpled form was fully unfolded and being held up to the bewildered father's face. On the top, the words "Parental Consent Form" were typed in bold, black ink. Victoria's father took it in his hands and inspected it with a cocked eyebrow.

"What's this?" he asked his daughter. Victoria beamed and peered at him over the top of the paper. She put a finger over the top so that it bent backwards slightly, and then she let go, and it bounced back.

"Well, you know those blues songs I'm always writing? I showed them to my music teacher, and he wants to enter them in a Young Songwriters contest," Victoria said, "but I need you to sign this first." She pointed out the thin black line under the one where she had already signed her full name in cursive. Her father put a finger to his clean shaven chin.

"Could you win anything?" he inquired interestedly. Victoria nodded.

"First place is fifty dollars. I know it's not a bunch of money, but it would mean a lot to me if I won. So, can you sign?" she asked. She produced a pen from her pocket, and her father took it in his hand and clicked the top.

"Hey! Hey, John, come over here for a second!" a male voice called from across the room. John, Victoria's father, swiveled around on his Italian loafers to see a couple of friends waving to him from the large couch. John turned around to face Victoria, whose expectant glance kept flickering from him to the unsigned form. Apologetically, her father tucked the pen in his shirt pocket and handed the piece of paper back to Victoria.

"I'm sorry, honey. Let's do this a different time, okay? Father doesn't want to be a bad host."

With that, he was on the other side of the room and out of earshot from Victoria. She cast him a dark look but knew that he wouldn't see it. Seconds later she was heading up the stairs with the form in hand, fuming furiously as she ascended. Even though her siblings were sleeping, she closed the door loudly. Victoria flopped down on her lavender bed and rolled over on her side. The form had been dropped on the floor, forgotten for the second time that evening as Victoria stared angrily at the wall.

"Father doesn't want to be a bad host," she muttered mockingly, "Wish he'd stop being a host for once and be my father." Oh, what she wouldn't give to live in a lower middle class home right now. Away from all of the madness of parties, gatherings, and surprisingly formal ice cream socials. Victoria huffed and brought herself up to a sitting position, and suddenly an idea began to form in her head. There was a place that was away from all this. Her family wouldn't even know that she was gone, either.

Slowly, Victoria lifted herself off of the bed and headed over to her closet, tiptoeing over so that she wouldn't make much noise. However, if she had made any noise, the snores of her little brothers and sisters would've covered it up. She carefully opened the closet doors. They folded together to get themselves out of the way, revealing a large assortment of shoes, tops, and pants of every style and color. After sifting through the clothes a bit, she found the outfit she was looking for.

It was the same one she had worn on her last trip to Halloween Town. A black, down filled vest was layered on top of a pumpkin orange shirt, and tiny black stars dotted the long sleeves. Victoria laid it aside on the bed. She then knelt down to her shoe shelves, and she picked out a pair of midnight black Birkenstocks that had been changed by Shock's spell. Her hat, unfortunately, had been turned to ashes. She decided not to wear her tangerine scarf; it wasn't as cold as it had been when she last visited.

A few seconds passed. In that time, Victoria had changed her outfit and was ready to go. She walked over to the door and peeked outside to make sure that no one was coming up the stairs to check on her. As usual, the loft was empty. The lonely feeling that seemed to sneak up on her was bittersweet, but she ignored it and returned to her closet where the key to her escape rested. She strode down to the end of her walk-in closet. This side of the wardrobe was full of the shirts and coats that still had tags on them, the forbidden gifts from distant family that she would never wear. Most of these were gaudy fur coats (Victoria thought these were cruel) or hideous frilled dresses. She pushed past the clothes to get to the shadowy wall behind them with some difficulty, but her efforts would soon be rewarded.

Something glinted with a golden light from behind an itchy sweater. Victoria shoved the ugly top away to reveal a little, brass doorknob that was attached to a hidden door in the closet. The door had been there when she had moved in. When she was little, she had used to crawl in and hide in the little space whenever she felt like being alone. Now she was too big for that, but it was still a kind of secret. Victoria twisted the small handle and pulled the door open. There it was, the black box that was engraved with a bat and the pumpkin border. She retrieved it from the storage space and closed the door, and then she opened the lid.

Inside was a silver card. The insignia of a golden key with a skull on the top appeared especially shiny in the fluorescent lighting of the closet, and a sort of rainbow danced across it when it shifted in the glow. It was a Skeleton Key card, used to teleport the holder to anywhere they wished. Victoria remembered the instructions clearly. All she had to was say the name of the place that she wanted to visit.

Victoria took a deep breath, clutched the card tightly, and whispered, "Halloween Town." In an instant the room began to spin before her eyes. She stumbled a bit as she tried to keep her balance, and miraculously, she managed to stay on two feet. A sort of spiraling vortex enveloped her completely. Orange and black flashed around her in a pattern that was too fast to follow, making her feel rather disoriented and queasy. Soon she felt her feet lifting off of the ground. Then, she touched back down to the sacred ground and it was over.

Everything seemed to slow down and stop spinning. Victoria's head was swimming with dizziness as she came to a halt, trying to steady herself against what looked like a tree. Her vision began to clear. She was in a forest of bare trees with spindly, gnarled branches that reached up and out to the dust colored sky above. The ground was covered in decaying leaves. As she looked harder, though, a certain ring of trees seemed to stand out more than all the others. They had thicker trunks, and they all had colored carvings on them that almost ridiculed the drab trees that wistfully surrounded them.

Victoria cautiously entered the circle of trees. The carvings were different for each tree: a pink heart, a decorated Christmas tree, a lit firecracker, a four leaf clover, a plump brown turkey, a painted Easter egg, and lastly, a grinning jack-o'-lantern. A small smile began to form on her face as she walked up to the pumpkin. She could see a black handle on the side of the jack-o'-lantern, so she jostled it and pulled the door open. Nothing was inside the trunk except for darkness. In curiosity, Victoria peeked down in the tree, but there wasn't anything that she could see. She quietly closed the door.

Disappointment hit Victoria like a slap in the face. The card must have been faulty. Perhaps Jack hadn't wanted her to come back to Halloween Town, maybe he just gave her the stupid card for her troubles. Her cheeks flushed red. How could she have been so trusting of him? Just when she was about to walk away, the door was flung open. Victoria swiveled around in shock to see about a hundred black bats flying at her, squeaking shrilly and staring at her with their beady eyes.

Victoria held up her arms to protect herself, but the bats flew above her. She had barely looked back up at them when they bombarded her, driving her backwards towards the door. Needless to say, she fell in. The bats vanished as she plummeted down into a spiral of orange, purple, and black that served as the portal to Halloween Town. As soon as she hit the center of the vortex, everything around her turned black.

She hit solid ground, landing on her back and getting the air knocked out of her lungs. Gasping for air, Victoria lifted herself up with one arm and clutched her chest with the other. She got up slowly, checking around to see if anything was lit up or remotely close to being a light. There was only black. With an exasperated sigh, she began to walk forward in a stride, waving her foot around with each step to make sure that she wasn't stepping on anything. Soon something came into view.

It was a scarecrow with a pumpkin for a head, its roguish grin illuminated by a yellow light coming from the candle within. Its red flannel shirt was stuffed with straw. The hay streamed out from its open sleeves, and it tufted out from its pants legs in a scruffy fashion. A decaying wooden sign was posted right above its head, spelling out, "Halloween Town" in white paint.

"Um," Victoria started, "Can you give me directions to Halloween Town?" She felt rather foolish talking to a scarecrow, but to her astonishment, it swung around on its pole and pointed with its hay fingers.

In a voice that was barely human, it whispered, "Right this way." Victoria's gaze lingered on the scarecrow as she went in the general direction.

"Thanks," Victoria said a little too loudly. The scarecrow turned around again, and she broke into a run, eager to get to somewhere familiar. Soon she found herself immersed in moonlight. She glanced upwards, seeing a pacific black sky sprinkled with burning white stars and a glorious full moon that shone like a pale ivory face. The ground below her was soft and grey. Headstones were implanted in the dirt all around her, and disembodied shadows began to appear on them, singing an eerie melody:

"_Boys and girls of every age,_

_Wouldn't you like to see something strange?_

_Come with us and you will see,_

_This, our town of Halloween!"_

The shadows all pointed to a gate in the distance, which swung open as soon as Victoria looked at it. Awful creaking noises accompanied it. They lingered in the air like the final music notes in a symphony before fading away into the dark evening atmosphere. With a few strides, Victoria was through the gate and on a grey but clear path. She laughed quietly as ghosts floated over her head, flying over the gate where they dropped tormented-faced pumpkins. They sang as well.

"_This is Halloween! This is Halloween!_

_Pumpkins scream in the dead of night._

_This is Halloween, everybody make a scene._

_Trick-or-treat 'til the neighbors gonna die of fright."_

The ghosts led Victoria to the gate, where they slipped agilely through the bars and left her to open it. One hung on to the bars for a second. Then, as fast as it had appeared, it was gone and had joined its fellow apparitions in singing again.

"_It's our town! Everybody scream!_

_In our town of Halloween…"_

They faded through a broken window that floated in midair. The hole was just big enough for Victoria to crawl into, but she managed to cut her finger on the way. She took a sharp breath, sticking her sore finger in her mouth. When she looked around, she saw that she was in a bedroom that was very blandly decorated with black, white, and grey. The checkered quilt on the bed had been tugged back. She went over to inspect it and saw the classic monster under the bed, waving to it as it sang.

"_I am the one hiding under your bed,_

_Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing RED!"_

It pointed with a clawed finger to the stairs. Victoria nodded and slid down the banister, stuck her landing, and strode around to the side of the staircase. Black and white snakes crawled out from the dark space and instantly withdrew to the shadows. She peeked in curiously to find another monster.

"_I am the one hiding under your stairs,_

_Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair!" _

His wiggly fingers were aimed squarely at the door to the next room. Victoria waved at him and was on her way again, ready for the surprises that lay inside. She pushed the door open. The room was filled with coffins, and on a table a book's pages were turned by an invisible wind. One by one, the caskets were thrown open to reveal singing vampires, including one that was hanging off of the ceiling.

"_This is Halloween! This is Halloween! _

_Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!"_

Victoria grinned at them, who all touched down on the ground. One opened the door for her, and she exited the house with them following behind her and singing.

"_In this town we call home,_

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin song."_

The vampires then disappeared, so Victoria was left to find someone that she could actually familiarize with in the large town. It only took a short time to hear a voice that she knew ringing loud and clear through a speaker.

"_In this town, don't we love it now?_

_Everybody's waiting for the next surprise!"_

The mayor smiled down at Victoria from his car, shaking his microphone wildly as an attempt to wave. Suddenly, she felt pain shoot through her left ankle. Her eyebrows furrowed in anger as she saw the villainous black cat, whose fangs had just sank through her leg.

"Why you little-" Victoria muttered. The cat yowled and ran off towards a back alley with the girl chasing after it. It scampered into a lane that veered to the right, landing nimbly on a trash can lid. Victoria's sore ankle seemed to heal in a short time. Voices echoed around her as they hid in the alley, all singing the same tune.

"_Round that corner, man_

_Hiding in the trash can._

_Something's waiting there to pounce and_

_How you'll scream!"_

Harley, the curly-haired harlequin demon, popped out of the tin garbage can and sent the black cat flying. Victoria snickered under her breath. A werewolf clawed through the brick wall, and the melting man burst out of the ground. They all began to sing their separate parts.

"_This is Halloween!"_

_"Red and black!"_

_"Slimy green!"_

_"Aren't you scared?"_

A couple of witches sailed past Victoria on brooms, making a large wind gust past her. They beckoned her and cackled shrilly. Victoria followed them as they dove down into a sort of sewer, singing as they flew back to the world above. She skirted around the murky water with help from the walkway.

"_Well, that's just fine! _

_Say it once, say it twice._

_Take a chance and roll the dice!  
Ride with the moon in the dead of night!"_

The witches soared vertically, laughing manically as they left Victoria to climb up the rusty ladder. She scaled the ladder in no time. Soon, she was walking along the cobblestone, listening to the giant hanging tree and its skeletons continuing the song.

"_Everybody scream! Everybody scream!"_

_"In our town on Halloween…"_

Victoria walked out of the alley, seeing as the cat had been thrown into the sky. A clown on a unicycle rode by and sang to the air.

"_I am the clown with the tear away face!  
Here in a flash and gone without a trace!"_

Like he said, the clown was soon out of Victoria's sight. She shrugged and followed an old iron fence that stretched so far that she couldn't see where it started or ended, running a hand over the cold black bars. The wind whispered in her ear as she walked.

"_I am the who when you call 'Who's there?'._

_I am the wind blowing through your hair!" _

Soon, a girl who Victoria knew as Sally came into view. Her shining, auburn hair came down to her legs, and her dress was stitched together from ragtag pieces of fabric. Ironically, so was she. Sally was completely made of blue fabric and thread, but the soul inside her let her live. She waved to Victoria and wore a warm smile. Victoria tried to get closer, but an incredible gust of wind blew her away onto a different path in the road. She looked up. The moon seemed larger and brighter here, and a eerily familiar shadow appeared on its white surface.

"_I am the shadow on the moon at night,_

_Filling your dreams to the brim with fright!"_

The silhouette disintegrated into a hundred bats. They flew away into the night, and Victoria watched as they soared over a parade of monsters that was slowly marching downtown. She ran to catch up with them. Their song traveled into her ears and bounced around in her head with the same tune she'd been hearing all night.

"_This is Halloween! This is Halloween! _

_Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" _

Little monster children scampered around the procession. Their insane, high-pitched laughs almost overpowered the song, but the adults made sure to give them a quick poke whenever they got too out of line. Two of the kids veered to the left. One hid behind a basket, but the other cut the rope of a nearby guillotine, giggling madly between lines of the song.

"_Tender lumplings everywhere,_

_Life's no fun without a good scare!"_

The parents of the corpse child walked up behind him and patted him on the head. He beamed as they smiled down on him.

"_That's our job, but we're not mean,_

_In our town of Halloween."_

The mayor's voice resonated over the chorus of monsters below him, booming out with the help of the microphone.

"_In this town, don't we love it now?_

_Everyone's waiting for the next surprise."_

Victoria watched from the crowd. Behemoth was pulling a sort of scarecrow on a straw horse by a rope, tugging it until he got right next to the fountain. Then the scarecrow came to life. It grabbed a torch from a shouting citizen, swallowing it whole in its jack-o'-lantern grin and lighting itself on fire. Flames licked the black sky as the scarecrow danced around. After a minute of this, the scarecrow did a flip and dove head first into the city's main fountain. As it did this, the onlookers sang proudly.

"_Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back and_

_Scream like a banshee,_

_Make you jump out of your skin!_

_This is Halloween,_

_Everybody scream!_

_Won't you please make way for a very special guy?  
Our man Jack is king of the pumpkin patch,_

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin king now!_

_This is Halloween! This is Halloween!_

_Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!" _

Victoria's heart leapt. She hadn't seen Jack Skellington in two weeks, but it felt like forever since she had last laid eyes on that gentleman skeleton. The townspeople were singing about him, but where was he? Two children ran up to the edge of the fountain, singing softly as they peered into the sea green water.

"_In this town, we call home_

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin song."_

Ripples started to come up from the water's surface. To Victoria's surprise, it wasn't the scarecrow that came rising from the fountain. Instead, her friend Jack Skellington emerged from the water, dripping wet but wearing a large, toothy grin in spite of himself. He waved to the people, who all began to cheer as they ended their song.

"Happy new year!" Jack called. The crowd applauded and whistled loudly, ringing in the new year with a hearty Halloween Town welcome. Victoria joined in with them until the laughter and clapping died away.

She whispered, "It's good to be back."

* * *

**Musically: Yes, it is good to be back, isn't it?**

**Victoria: Shut up, I'm trying to enjoy myself. **

**Musically: Yeah, yeah. Okay, readers! (pulls the sheet off of a voting machine) Time to review!**


	3. An Awkward Situation

**Musically: _Whew...sorry this took such a long time. I had a severe case of writer's block for this chapter. It does introduce some new characters, though, and put Victoria in an awkward situation! Hooray!_**

**Victoria: _What kind of situation?_**

**Musically: _...You'll see. (waits and eats popcorn)_**

* * *

That New Year's Eve had been the best night of Victoria's life. The citizens of Halloween Town certainly knew how to throw a party, even if it was a little morbid in some ways. Victoria had eaten lots of weird but tasty food, played almost all of the games that the city had to offer, and gotten introduced to nearly everyone in the town by Jack and Sally (as if they didn't know her already). By the end of the night, Victoria was feeling very full and happy. Her frizzy, waved brown hair encircled her head like a halo when she lay down on a square hay bale. She closed her hunter green eyes, breathing in the fresh air that smelled eternally of crackling bonfires. Victoria could almost hear the roaring flames.

A smoky scent reached her nose as it drifted up from below her head. Victoria could now actually hear the noise of a crackling fire as flames climbed up the dusty straw, the fire growing with every second. In dismay, she leapt from her seat. No more than five seconds had passed before the hay bale was a pile of dust. Snickers came from the shadows in the alley, but just before Victoria was about to discover the culprits, Jack tapped her on the shoulder.

"What?" Victoria asked irritably. The laughter from the alley got louder for a few moments before fading away. Jack gave her an odd look before pointing to the steps of Town Hall behind him, where Sally was sleeping with an empty wine glass near her limp hand, a quiet smile placed on her lips.

"I'm afraid the champagne was a little too much for her," Jack mused. He and Victoria walked over to where Sally was. Her chest rose and fell in a soft rhythm, and every so often a sigh would escape from her mouth. Jack looked at her lovingly. Victoria cleared her throat in a meaningful way, telling Jack to get a move on. Though Jack didn't want to wake Sally up, he tenderly lifted her into his arms and held her close to his chest. She never even stirred.

"Deep sleeper," Victoria noted. Jack nodded quietly, marveling in Sally's silent beauty.

"Shall we go home?" Jack asked.

"After you," Victoria said with a smile, making an exaggerating curtsy as Jack passed by.

"She's so beautiful when she's asleep," Jack said. Victoria didn't really have a response for this, so she was very glad when the tall tower of the mansion started to poke over the black horizon. After they walked a few more yards, the gargantuan house was in full view. Victoria grimaced as she saw that troublesome staircase that led up to the house again. She opened the iron gates for Jack and then started to make her way up the stairs, which to her was much easier than the last time. The door eerily creaked open with a moan as she approached and saved her the trouble of having to hold it for Jack. The skeleton passed her with a grin.

"Thanks, Victoria. You can go upstairs, if you want; I'll have to put Sally to bed myself," Jack explained.

"G'night, Jack."

"See you in the morning!"

Victoria headed up the spiraling staircase, trying to keep herself from feeling the vertigo that was starting to settle in. Soon, she reached the musty loft. The guest bedroom was on her right. She rushed inside, kicking off her shoes and flopping down on the handmade orange and black quilt that was stretched neatly over the bed.

"Ow!" Victoria yelped, jumping up as something sharp hit her back. Her pained expression changed into a thoughtful one as she saw what had been in her way, though. An orange and black box was sitting on the quilt. Shimmering black ribbon was tied in a bow and sat prettily on the top, and the tag that hung off of the side read, "To Victoria, From Jack and Sally". Without another thought, Victoria ripped off the paper to see what was inside. She lifted off the lid of the unwrapped package, finding a rather nice surprise nestled in the red and black tissue paper.

A pajama set rested in the box, tidily folded without a wrinkle in sight. The shirt was thin and had a shocking tangerine orange color, and the silky pants were black with orange skulls printed all over them. Victoria carefully took them out, unfolding them on the bed. The only thing left inside was a small piece of paper with silver lining and writing in the middle. Victoria took this out too and saw that it read, "Thought you might want something more comfortable to sleep in. Love, Jack and Sally." She smiled warmly at the card and outfit.

In a matter of seconds, Victoria had already changed into the pajamas, which looked quite nice on her though no one was there to see. She pulled the quilt halfway off the bed. The mattress was nice and springy, and it creaked a little as she climbed onto it but settled down soon. She fluffed the pillows until they looked like overstuffed black marshmallows. Warmth spread around her when she pulled the quilt onto her shoulders and drifted off to sleep

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

_The clattering sound of dice rolling seemed to surround Victoria. All around her, flashing lights of red, orange, and green turned on and off, making her dizzy and confused. A heavy smell of dust and alcohol hung in the air. She couldn't feel anything; it was like getting Novocain from the dentist and turning numb all over her body. Terrible, evil laughter rang through her ears. She knew that laughter. _

_As if in slow motion, Victoria turned around to face the owner of the awful, coarse voice. Oogie Boogie stood in front of her, grinning roguishly and tossing a pair of dice up in the air. A large roulette wheel spun around in a hypnotic way behind him, and his neon bats fluttered around the ceiling while their skeleton counterparts moaned on the floor below them. As he leaned in towards Victoria, his skin turned a pale, sickly green in the light._

_"Well, well, well. What have we here? Victoria Dalton, we meet again. Such a pleasure it is, to have a fine young lady like yourself to drop in on poor, old Mr. Oogie Boogie. What have you been up to since you left? Left me to die, that is," Oogie said, starting out in a pleasant tone which got less and less pleasant with each word. She had to be dreaming (which she was); Oogie was dead now. Victoria managed to choke out a few sentences even though she felt like she couldn't breathe._

_"You're dead. You're not alive. This is a dream," Victoria spat. Oogie laughed raucously, his large, bulging stomach bouncing up and down. _

_"In case you were unaware, little lady, everyone's dead in Halloween Town. Believe me, I'm no exception!" Oogie yelled, now suddenly angry. He grabbed hold of one of the handles on the roulette wheel, thrusting it downwards and making the spiral spin even faster. Victoria's gaze seemed to be caught on the spinning wheel as Oogie circled her. _

_"You can't tell me you can't remember how Jack murdered me! As if I didn't have enough trouble in my afterlife. All I got to eat were bugs, insects, spiders, and those get pretty old after a while, don't they? Was it a crime to want to treat myself to one little delicacy? WAS IT?" Oogie roared in her ear. Victoria kept a straight face as she stared into the endless spiral of the roulette wheel that was still turning, turning, turning…_

_"You tried to murder four innocent people, including me. That is a crime," Victoria muttered. She couldn't seem to tear her gaze away from the orange and black wheel, but she didn't want to look at Oogie, either. An audible growl rumbled in his throat. _

_"Well, call me a criminal," Oogie snapped, "but call him a criminal, too!" _

_"Who?"_

_"You know perfectly well who!" _

_"In all honesty, Mr. Oogie, no, I don't." _

_"JACK SKELLINGTON!" Oogie roared furiously. The burlap sack stomped over to his vice, turning the lever and crushing several skeletons in his rage. Again he waddled over to Victoria, who was desperately trying to look at something other than the hypnotizing wheel. It seemed to surround her from all sides, closing in as Oogie's voice got louder._

_"He thought he killed me, didn't he? He thought he was so clever, but no. Not even the Pumpkin King can kill the Boogie Man!" Oogie yelled triumphantly. He got in Victoria's face, grinning with a hint of a snarl forming in his lip. She seemed to stare right through him. Even though his jade green figure blocked her view, she could still see the orange wheel getting bigger and bigger. _

_"So, even though this is a dream, you can take my word for it. I'm back, and I want some of that sweet, sweet revenge. Got it?" _

_This seemed to snap Victoria away from the wheel. He couldn't be back; he said it was a dream himself! If he knew, though, then…the logic confused Victoria. She tried to come up with a response, but she was at a loss for words and started to spurt out a stream of insults._

_"You're a liar! Jack killed you and you're never coming back! This is all a dream; isn't that what you said?"_

_"I never said that it wasn't real, now, did I? During my unfortunately prolonged absence, I might have picked up a few new skills. I'm just testing them out."_

_"You're not making any sense!"_

_"Then let me simplify it for you," Oogie said with a smirk, "I'm coming back to get revenge on this whole town. Be ready." _

_"GO TO HELL!"_

_"After you, m'dear," Oogie laughed cruelly. He moved to the left and stomped on a button on the floor, making flames fly out from the wheel. The floor below Victoria suddenly opened up and revealed bubbling orange lava. She screamed as she fell to her fiery death…_

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

Victoria woke up in a cold sweat. Her pillow was soaked, and her covers had been kicked to the foot of the bed. She shivered. That dream had been so real, and she remembered it as if it had really happened, as if she had really been back in Oogie's lair. Lightning flashed in the window and made her jump. She sat up in the bed and looked outside, seeing black clouds floating ominously in the grey sky and hearing thunder boom. Victoria shook her head, eyes wide open. She wasn't going to get back to sleep anytime soon. The skull-shaped clock on the night table was illuminated by a flash of lightning, and Victoria saw that it said, "8:45 A.M." In fact, she could hear Sally humming a tune and making breakfast downstairs.

As much as she wanted to forget the dream, it wouldn't stop replaying itself over and over in Victoria's head. She thought a bit of breakfast would get it off her mind. When she started to move, though, a rustling noise came from the other side of the bed. She froze. Then, in an amazingly quick movement, she clicked on the lamp that sat on the night table, filling the room with bright, fresh light. She saw it. There was someone-or something else in the bed with her.

Victoria screamed in a mixture of dismay, disgust, and terror. How did she not notice this crazed pervert coming into her room and crawling in her bed? Whoever he was, he was a deep sleeper. Snores came from under the blanket that covered him still after she was finished screaming. Victoria jumped out of the bed in her haste to get away, dragging the quilt off the bed as it became tangled in between her frantically moving legs. She landed on the floor with a thud.

Suddenly, the bedroom door burst open. Jack, hearing Victoria's scream, had rushed upstairs to see what the matter was. Awkward was the only definition for the scene he had the misfortune to look upon: Victoria had fallen on the floor, chestnut brown hair a mess and trapped in the quilt like a fly in a spider's web. Her eyes were wide with shock. And there, on the bed, was a sleeping boy in black cargo pants and a red t-shirt. Jack cast an apologetic look towards Victoria before rubbing a hand bone to his sore temples.

"Max," Jack growled. The boy on the bed shifted in his sleep a little, only just beginning to wake up. A series of unintelligible mumbles came from underneath the pillow before fading back into rumbling snores. Jack lifted his skull from his fingers.

"MAX!"

The boy was wide awake now, feeling around himself to find the missing quilt with his head still under the pillow. Victoria could see that his hands were only bones. Slowly, the pearly white skull of Max Skellington rose up from under the pillow, eye sockets blinking groggily. Victoria had to try hard to stifle her gasp. The skeleton was almost a miniature version of the other skeleton beside her, except that he wasn't so small once one got a good look at him. He was quite tall, but he must have been light. Victoria hadn't even felt him get in the bed.

"What is it, Jack?" Max yawned, rubbing his empty eye sockets with his skeletal hands. His words were slurred and mumbled. With a sleepy glance, he looked over at the mass of orange and black on the floor that was Victoria.

"Who's that?" Max asked, now becoming more awake. Victoria got up and felt a little bit less shaken.

"Yeah, Jack. Who's that?" she questioned furiously, pointing an accusing finger at Max. Max looked startled for a minute, and then he glanced back up at his uncle with a confused expression painted across his face.

"What? What'd I do?" he asked frantically. Jack's gaze switched back and forth to both teenagers, one angry girl and the other baffled boy. He desperately tried to come up with the right euphemism to explain this awkward situation to Max.

"Well, it seems as though…that you, er, well, didn't see Victoria in the bed last night, and, um…got in without either of you, er, realizing that the other was, well, um, in bed. Got it?"

Blank stares from each of them were the response. Victoria turned her angry glare to Max, who returned the favor by scooting back a bit on the bed.

"Here's a better question," Victoria snapped, "Did you see me sleeping in the bed before you decided to crawl in? Or was it all a terrible mistake?"

Max's eye sockets were like black saucers. He shook his head a few times, and then looked back at Victoria.

"Oh, my God! I am really, really sorry. I got in late from the party, and the traveling had tired me out, and…and…oh. I guess I didn't see you. I'm so, so, SO sorry," he rambled on. Victoria rolled her eyes a bit.

"Do it again and I will make sure that Jack kills you," she said bitterly. Max stared at Jack with a sort of amused look. Jack passed the look on to Victoria, who was now trying to free herself from the quilt of doom.

"Now, Victoria. Do you really think I would try to kill my own nephew?"

Victoria stopped in her tracks.

"Excuse me?" she asked. Jack nodded.

"Yes, Max is my nephew. His father is my brother. He and his sister like to come visit every other month or so, and you picked the right time to come too! I'm sure you two will get along fine. In fact, this whole thing will be just a funny memory after today, right?" Jack said. Max nodded his head eagerly and jumped out of the bed.

"Wait. You have a sister, too?" Victoria asked.

Max replied, "Yeah, she's probably downstairs. Want to come meet her?"

Victoria stared at him in wonder. How he managed to shake off that embarrassing incident so quickly amazed her, but she still nodded her head.

"Sure, why not?" she said dully. Max grinned.

"Great! Here, let me help you up," he said, extending a bony hand towards her. As Victoria reluctantly took it, she found that it was quite warm, unlike Jack's.

He let go almost as quickly as he had taken it and rushed down the stairs, calling, "Meddie! Meddie! Guess who's up here?"

Victoria watched him go. The memory of the dream had been pushed back, and she was ready to keep it there. With an over-the-shoulder look at Jack, she went down the stairs to follow Max.

* * *

**Musically: _Heh...you like him._**

**Victoria: _Do not. It's just good to keep my mind on something else._**

**Musically: _Do you really think he's back?_**

**Victoria:_ (shrugs) You're the writer. You should know._**

**Musically: _Yes...I should...Mwuahahahaha!_**


	4. Meeting Meddie

**Musically: _Heh, this chapter is kinda short but funny. _**

**Victoria: _What do you mean by funny? (glares)_**

**Musically: _Oh, it doesn't embarrass you. Just Max. Horribly embarrasses him._**

**Max: _What? Huh? What are you guys talking about?_**

**Musically/Victoria: _Nothing!_**

* * *

All three of them went down the stairs. Max tromped down roughly in front, Victoria followed him, and Jack brought up the rear. Victoria stopped

"Meddie? Hey, Meddie!" Max called from the bottom of the stairs. Just then, Sally walked up from behind him, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. He spun around quickly and looked at Sally with an expression of horror.

"Meddie! Oh, my God. Oh, my God!" Max yelled, suddenly turning around to Jack. The towering skeleton had stopped right behind Victoria on the stairs, and he leaned back a little as Max pointed an accusing finger at him.

"What did you do to Meddie? She looks like a full grown woman! OH GOD, NO! SHE'S ONLY ELEVEN!"

By now, Max was on the floor. His skull was in his bony hands, and he was moaning terribly on the bottom of the stairs. Victoria quickly sidestepped him and stood beside Sally. Jack, however, seemed to be frozen on the staircase as he stared at his nephew.

"Why…Why did you have to make her so hot? WHY?" Max sobbed. Feeling even more awkward than she did before, Victoria leaned in to whisper in his would-be-ear.

"Um, Max? That's not Meddie."

Max stopped yelling almost instantly. He lifted his head out of his hands, staring at Victoria like a total idiot.

"She's not?"

"No. This is Jack's new girlfriend, Sally."

"…Oh."

Max smiled weakly at her, and she returned the grin but not without furious blushing. Victoria rolled her eyes. Jack finally started moving again, going quickly to save both Max and Sally from this embarrassing situation.

"Well, now that you two have been acquainted, why don't we all go into the kitchen and have some of that delicious breakfast that Sally has so kindly prepared for us this morning?" Jack suggested quickly. Sally nodded eagerly.

"I made Transylvanian toast and eggs, lunar side up. Hope you all like them," she said quietly. The redness was slowly beginning to fade from her face, but she was still in a hurry to get to the kitchen. Jack followed her. Victoria stayed behind with Max, who was still in a slump on the floor.

"Not very good with first impressions, are you?" she asked. Max looked down with a smile, shaking his head.

"Apparently not."

"Here, get up. Sally's a great cook; she'll think her meal is bad if it's not all gone."

Victoria hesitated for a moment, and then she extended her hand. Max took it but was almost knocked down again as she suddenly let go. She turned the corner, brown hair swishing behind her. With a long, exasperated sigh, Max tagged along. This trip could take longer than he thought with her around. He turned the corner and was instantaneously blasted with good smells and the voices of Jack, Sally, and Victoria.

Max walked over to the dining table. He pulled out the chair, sitting down and crossing his legs to make himself more comfortable. A blue, stitched arm reached out in front of him and laid down a plate of breakfast. Max looked up, and he saw Sally.

"Thanks," he said. She blushed and looked away. Max poked at the food a little with his fork and then glanced across the table, seeing his sister, Meddie. She was eleven years old. For her awkward age, though, she was surprisingly beautiful. Her straight, copper brown hair glimmered due to the chandelier above, and her eyes would have too, had they not been shielded by the pair of black sunglasses she was wearing. They were askew on her head from sleeping, but not enough to show her eyes. Max saw that she was already dressed. Her shirt was black, with a shiny, brown holographic print of a snake coiling around her waist. The shirt seemed to be raggedly cut off at the sleeves. Longer sleeves flowed out of it, depicting spiders spinning their webs across the fabric. Her jeans were hidden by the table, but Max knew that they had black buttons lining the sides.

Almost all of Meddie's breakfast was gone. Max glanced at her plate for a second before grinning back up at her.

"You know, it's usually polite to wait for other people to actually sit down before starting to eat," Max said jokingly. Meddie jumped slightly, as though just realizing he was there. A soft smile played across her lips as she answered him.

"It's a bit too late for that now, isn't it? Besides, I'm sure Jack and Sally won't mind."

"Oh, you've already met Sally? Heh…me too."

"She's so nice. She's a good cook, too, much better than Jack." Meddie whispered, not wanting her uncle to hear her.

"Well, Victoria's kind of nice too. Only reason she's being weird around me is because she thinks I'm a pervert."

"Victoria? Who's she? Why in the world would she think you're a pervert?"

"She's in the kitchen. I think she's my age, and that's because I accidentally, um, slept in the bed with her."

"Max!"

"Please, I don't want to get into this again. I didn't see her, alright? Hard to see anyone with all this orange and black around. Doesn't help that she's wearing it."

"Well…I don't know. What kind of person is she?" Meddie asked. She had never liked to use the term 'monster'; it had always seemed cruel to her. Max, who had a clear view of Victoria from the end of the table, leaned back in his chair to see her. After a few seconds, he put his chair legs back on the floor and looked over at Meddie.

"I think…I think she's a regular person!"

"No, she couldn't be. Why would she be in Halloween Town, then? Check again and see if she's blue. Everyone who's dead is blue, or at least they are at home." Meddie suggested. Max shook his head.

He said, "She's definitely not blue. Maybe she's a vampiress?" Their ponderings stopped when Victoria came over to sit with them. She took a bite out of her toast, marveling in the flavor for a few seconds before looking at Meddie. She swallowed, waited a minute, and then put an elbow on the table and put her chin in her hand.

"So, I'm guessing you're Meddie, right?" Victoria said in a friendly tone. Meddie smiled politely back at her, and Victoria felt slightly bothered by the fact that she was wearing sunglasses. Something didn't seem right about it. It was as if some kind of force was being restrained by the dark lenses, aiming right at her. Meddie answered before Victoria could think about this anymore.

"Yes. Has Max said anything about me?" Meddie asked. Victoria could sense a small hint of urgency in her voice. She raised an eyebrow, but not enough so that Meddie would notice. They both gave a quick glance towards Max, who suddenly became very interested in his breakfast.

"Only that you're his sister. Why, is there something you're not telling me?" Victoria inquired as a joke. To her surprise, Meddie froze up. Victoria quickly shook her head and waved her hands.

"No, no, no, no! I was just kidding; don't worry about it," Victoria said. Meddie nodded and returned to the remains of her food, but Victoria heard a small sigh of relief escape her lips. A few minutes passed, and they made small talk as they ate the delicious meal that Sally had prepared. Victoria found out that Max was fourteen, the same age as her. Meddie was eleven. They were both from a town called the Land of the Dead, where there were mostly blue corpses for neighbors.

"Oh, the Land of the Dead is really not a bad place," Meddie explained to Victoria.

"What's it like there?"

"Really cool," Max cut in, "Lots of colors. The people there are real nice, even though they might be missing an eye or a nose. There's a bar on almost every street, and the town goes on for miles and miles. Probably always takes so long to get here. Lucky for us, we live on the very edge of the Land of the Dead."

"So, that means you two are dead, right?" Victoria asked.

"Me? Yeah. Meddie? Not really. Personally, I think she'd be better off in Halloween Town, but our immediate family lives in the Land of the Dead," Max told her.

Victoria hesitated for a second, but then asked, "If you don't mind me asking, how did you die?" Max also stopped. He thought for a minute, and then shrugged.

"Nothing real big," Max explained, "Only a house fire. It's part of this Skellington family curse, I think. I try not to think about it too much, though."

"I see," Victoria said.

By the time they had finished talking, all three of them had eaten their breakfast. Not a single crumb was left on any plate. They walked in a sort of muddled line to the kitchen, stacking their plates on the counter as they each passed by. Victoria, who was leading the line, turned around. Max and Meddie stopped abruptly in front of her.

"I've got to go get dressed. After I do, want do you two want to do? We can't stay around the house all day," Victoria said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Max said, "You do have a point."

"It's raining, though," Meddie noted, pointing to the window. The clouds had lost their black hue, which was now faded away to a pigeon-colored grey. Light rain was drizzling down onto the dreary landscape outside. Victoria shrugged.

"That doesn't matter much to me. You two can make up your minds while I get ready, okay? I'll be right down," she said as she rushed up the stairs.

Max and Meddie were left alone, not knowing exactly what to think of Victoria.

* * *

**Musically: _Okay, crappy ending. However, some questions remain: Why does Meddie wear those sunglasses? Is she really as normal as she seems? Will Max stop embarrasing himself...EVER?_**

**Victoria: _You need to stop. Now._**

**Musically: _Backtalk again and I shall put you through hell._**

**Victoria: _Don't hurt me! hides in a bucket_**


	5. Did You Hear That?

**Musically: _Okay, okay. I know I haven't updated in a while, and that's only because I have this thing called 'a life' that keeps getting in the way. Kind of annoying, right? Anyways, I'll try to come up with some better chapters later...for now, enjoy this little bitty tiny short one._**

**Victoria: _No comment today folks. The sarcasm will have to wait for another day._**

**Meddie: _There is some Jack/Sally in the beginning though...hooray?_**

**Musically: _Yup. I put that in just for Whitty and Sweet Nightmare. Enjoy, you guys!_**

* * *

Jack and Sally were walking on the path together. The chattering of Max, Meddie, and Victoria sounded far ahead of them, and every now and then they would slow down for a minute before running ahead of the couple. Jack and Sally looked around fondly at the land spread out before them. Bare branched trees reached up to they sky in a worshipping fashion, and the grey clouds wrapped themselves around the limbs like misty scarves. A slight fog was sitting lazily around their feet. Dead, decaying leaves were scattered around the ground as the last reminders of fall. They crunched as they were ground into the dirt by Jack and Sally, who were talking as they ambled along, holding hands.

"Max isn't stupid, you know. He just tends to get himself in embarrassing situations quite often," Jack told Sally. She giggled and hit him lightly on the shoulder with her free hand.

"I didn't call him stupid, Jack!"

"When have you ever called anyone stupid, my dear? I know you're much too compassionate and kind for that sort of foul language."

"Oh, is that so? I daresay I've called Dr. Finklestein a bit more than stupid over the course of the past two or three decades."

"Touché, Sally, touché. Besides, I think you should be feeling flattered from that situation with Max."

"Really? Why?"

"Well, he did call you hot. That's true, by the way, although I'd prefer to tell you in a more tactful manner."

"Jack, if the kids hear you talking like this, they'd be rolling on the floor laughing."

"I won't let them hear us, then," he said as he leaned in closely to her ear. Sally laughed with mirth, and Jack chuckled as she snuggled in closer to his shoulder. Meanwhile, Max, Meddie, and Victoria were having their own conversation ahead of them. They formed a row along the cobblestone path: Meddie was to the far left, Victoria was at the right, and Max was in the middle of the two girls. They chatted as teenagers and preteens do as they made their way into town.

"I swear, Max, you have got to stop doing this," Meddie said in a motherly tone. The skeleton beside her shrugged innocently.

"Doing what?" Max asked. Meddie rolled her eyes.

"You know what I'm talking about. You've got to quit embarrassing yourself in front of people you've just met. There's a reason why you're not very popular back home," Meddie told him. Victoria leaned her head forward so that she could see Meddie, and a smirk was dancing across her face.

"So, this has happened before?" Victoria asked with a laugh. Meddie nodded exasperatedly, throwing her hands up to the sky for emphasis.

"When has it not happened before? Anytime he meets someone new, anytime he gets introduced, anytime he happens to say hello to a stranger…" Meddie trailed off as she shook her head. Max chuckled and shoved his sister playfully on the shoulder. Meddie stumbled a bit (Max was strong for his age) before regaining her balance and catching up with the two others.

"Well, it's not that I mean to do most of it. Take our situation for example, shall we?" Max asked Victoria. Victoria cocked an eyebrow.

"Let's not and say we did."

"Fine, we'll look at Sally's. I know that Jack can be a little weird sometimes, especially with the Christmas thing…oh, wait, do you know what happened last month?" Max asked her. Victoria nodded, and the memories all seemed to flood back to her slowly as she answered him.

"Yeah…yeah, I was there," Victoria said quietly. Suddenly, she heard laughter that seemed to be coming from nowhere, but at the same time from everywhere at once. She glanced behind her shoulder. However, Victoria only saw Jack and Sally pressed against each other's sides, whispering little loving words to each other as they walked. The laughter seemed to fade away, so she turned back around to look in front of her. Max seemed a bit concerned.

"You okay?" he asked. Victoria gave a little passive gesture, but she could see that Meddie was looking a little shaken as well.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good…oh, hold on. Harley! HARLEY!" Max yelled. He waved his bony hand furiously as he raised it up in the air, and he called out to the demon that was walking a little bit ahead of him. Harley turned around, his curly tentacle hair whipping around in the breeze. His expression brightened when he saw Max, who turned back to face his two companions.

"I'll meet you two at Town Hall later, okay? I've got to catch up with Harley," Max explained. Victoria and Meddie bid him farewell as he ran to meet the harlequin demon. The two girls looked at each other for a little bit, and then resumed their walk down the dusty, rough path that led downtown.

"Why was he so excited about going to Town Hall, anyways?" Victoria inquired. Meddie shrugged.

"Well, a few years ago Max helped Uncle Jack with one of his Halloween meetings. The mayor thought he had 'great potential for the future' or something, so now he likes to go to see how he can help with the planning," Meddie answered.

"I get it. So, is Max always like a Junior Mayor when he comes to visit?" Victoria asked. With a laugh, Meddie shook her head.

"No. He knows that this town doesn't need another one," she said. Victoria laughed along with her for a second, but it faded away rather quickly. Meddie gave her a bemused look.

"Okay, so maybe it wasn't that funny."

Victoria quickly replied, "No! No, it was good. It's just, well; I thought I just heard…"

"Laughing?"

Meddie's expression was now as grave as Victoria's. Both of their eyes widened for a second, and then Victoria decided to break the silence.

"Yeah. Yeah, I heard someone laughing. But it wasn't just someone. It was Oogie."

"Oogie Boogie? I thought he was dead."

"He's supposed to be. But…" Victoria trailed off. Meddie gave her a concerned look, or at least as concerned as you can look with sunglasses on. She shifted a little and stuck her pale hands in her pockets.

"But what?" Meddie asked her. Victoria avoided looking at her, but she gave a reply.

"I had this dream last night. Oogie was in it, and I was there in his hideout. A lot of things happened, I mean, I can remember it like I was actually there, you know? I don't know why I was there, because you can ask anyone. I do NOT want to go back down there."

"Down? Is his lair underground?" Meddie inquired. Victoria, who had kept walking the whole time, stopped in her tracks.

"Wait. Have you ever even seen Oogie?" Victoria asked. Meddie shook her head.

"No, except for his shadow. Uncle Jack told us all kinds of stories about the awful stuff he's done in the past, and he does sound really bad to me. I've never seen him or been to where he lives."

Victoria glanced at her another time before shaking her head and walking forward. Meddie followed suit, trying hard to keep pace with her friend.

"He's big, you should know that. He's made of a sack, a big, burlap sack that's full of bugs. He lives in an underground casino that is directly below Lock, Shock, and Barrel's tree house, and- hold on. You do know who they are, right?" Victoria asked. Meddie nodded, glad that she knew some of what Victoria was saying.

"Yes, I know them," Meddie said, and then muttered, "Unfortunately."

"Well, last year Oogie was about to eat this guy named Santa, and Sally too. Then I came in and tried to get him to let them go, but he didn't listen and he was about to cook me too, but Jack saved all of us and killed Oogie."

Meddie gasped, "Uncle Jack killed a person?"

"Well, not really, because in this dream, Oogie was talking to me. He said that Jack didn't really kill him, and that he was coming back for revenge," Victoria explained. She failed to mention the part about her fiery demise, but only because she could see that Meddie was already on the edge. Meddie had her hands out of her pockets now, and was holding one up to her mouth in shock.

"How did he say he was going to do that?" she asked in a horrified wonder. Victoria shrugged.

"He didn't. Just then, I thought I was just being paranoid when I heard that laughing. I guess it was real though, if you heard it."

"How come Max didn't hear it, then?"

Victoria opened her mouth to respond, but the words didn't form. Max hadn't seemed like he had heard anything strange or unusual, and Jack would have said something, wouldn't he? Sally had been quiet as well, but that wasn't much of a change.

"I…I don't know. It's weird, though, that we'd be the only ones to hear it," Victoria said. Meddie agreed silently, nodding her head.

They walked a little bit more in silence, and soon the town was in sight.

* * *

**Musically: _Okay, so you didn't really find out anything shocking. But what about the laughter? SUSPENSEFUL, IS IT NOT?_**

**Victoria: _No. It's not._**

**Musically: _(pout) Oh, who asked you? Next chapter coming soon; it's going to be a lot better, I promise._**


	6. An Unfortunate Turn of Events

_**Musically:** (gets on knees) FORGIVE ME! I've been gone so long with school and things that I haven't gotten around to updating. In fact, I had to cut this chapter short. I'm sorry, okay? I'm SORRY!_

_**Victoria:** Get a grip, woman! (slaps her)_

_**Musically:** Okay, thanks. I needed that._

_**Victoria: (**raises hand again)_

_**Musically:** No, I'm fine now! Really!_

* * *

As the course of time went on, Meddie and Victoria's memory of the laughter faded. They were greeted by Max when they reached Town Hall, and they could hear the frantic worrying of the mayor coming from inside. Max opened the door for them. The girls stepped in and were met by a blue-faced mayor with his hat askew on top of his conical head, his expression twisted into a troubled frown. He skittered from place to place, trying to remain calm but failing miserably.

Jack and Sally followed closely behind. They took their seats at a large table that had been placed in the center of the lobby, and Victoria swore she saw one of the table legs twitch. Sally motioned for the kids to come sit down. Meddie sat across from Victoria, and Max was seated beside Meddie. Jack and Sally were, of course, sitting with their chairs a little more closely than they had been set up, holding back sniggers as the mayor tittered about how off schedule they were.

"Oh! There's only three hundred and fifty four days left until next Halloween! We've got to make plans, Jack! Just think of all the time we've wasted so far, almost forty-eight hours! Never mind, don't think about it. That'll just waste more time! Oh…" the mayor groaned as he dropped his scrolls. The parchment unraveled on the floor, revealing grotesque pictures of bats and spiders scrawled across grids, charts, and graphs. Complicated equations that made no sense to Victoria lined the paper.

Victoria got up to help the mayor gather his plans. She took a hold of one that was partially undone; it was a scroll that was a different shape and size of the others. Seeing that the mayor was busy, she peeked inside. The scroll, when extended to its full length, showed a female vampire in a suggestive pose, beckoning the looker with a manicured finger. Her slinky, black dress cut off somewhere near her upper leg, and the top of it was barely there. Victoria closed it immediately. Blushing madly, she handed it to the mayor, who glared at her and tucked it into his coat pocket.

"Well, onto business, then," the mayor stated. He unfolded one of the scrolls and began to point out all of the scaring techniques that could be used, occasionally losing it and reminding them that he was only an elected official, at which point Jack practically had to hold him down to get him to be quiet. Needless to say, Victoria found it all very dull. Meddie seemed to feel the same way, because Victoria saw her twirling her hair and looking up at the ceiling whenever she looked over there.

Max looked happy, though. More often than not, he was pointing out ways to make an old scaring trick better or more modern, or when something not scary enough or at all. His white fingers were a blur as they skimmed across the blueprints. Victoria felt dizzy when she watched them, but the adults looked on intently with impressed smiles. Jack would occasionally give Max some sagely advice, such as the time when Max was looking at an especially difficult stunt.

The young skeleton held up the scroll. Depicted on it was the image of a vampire holding out his cloak like wings, letting what seemed like thousands of bats out to fly in the night. Blood streamed from his mouth, nose, and eyes. The bats were colored in black and red, and they formed skull patterns in the sky. Max held the design up to Jack for review.

"I don't know about this one, Uncle Jack. It seems like a bit too much, or too busy. What do you think?" Max asked. Jack took the paper from Max, looked it over briefly, and then shook his head.

"It's just fine," Jack said wisely, "because you can never be too extreme in Halloween."

Max smiled a little as the advice sunk in. Scenes like these seemed to go on for about another decade until the Mayor finally said that they could stop for a break. Victoria looked at the display of food in front of her. There were cookies in the shape of bats and pumpkins along with small sandwiches filled with who-knows-what. She smirked as an idea struck her. When she saw Sally, she wiped the grin off of her face and put on an expression of curiosity.

"Sally?" Victoria asked in a 'good girl' voice. Sally walked over while shakily balancing a glass plate of appetizers in her hand.

"Yes?"

"Those sandwiches over there look delicious. Did you make them?"

"Yes, in fact, I did. Thank you!"

"Well, I don't mean to be rude, but could you tell me what they're made of?"

"That's not a problem at all. I put in pumpkin leaves, bat wings, and blood mustard for a little bit of flavoring. Does it sound good?" Sally asked hopefully. Victoria made herself look disappointed, putting a hand to her cheek.

Monotonously, Victoria said, "Oh, no. What a shame! I had almost forgotten that I was allergic to blood mustard."

"Oh, that is a problem, isn't it. What are you going to have for lunch now?" Sally wondered. Victoria smiled slightly, grabbed Meddie by the arm, and pointed out towards the door.

"Mind if I take Meddie to show me somewhere to eat around town? She's been going here longer than I have, and…you know," Victoria said.

Sally seemed to ponder this for a second, and then she shrugged.

"Well, I'm sure Jack wouldn't mind. You two have fun. Don't get lost, and stay together!" Sally had to yell, for the two girls were already out the door. The doors of the town hall closed with a bang behind Meddie and Victoria, and they looked at each other.

"You're not really allergic to blood mustard, are you," Meddie stated with a grin. Victoria shook her head.

"Never have been, never will be."

The girls laughed as they ran downtown, glad to finally be away from the dreadful meeting.

After a half-hour or so, Victoria and Meddie were sitting down, happily eating sweet candy corn from a bag. Victoria smiled with rapture as the succulent flavor exploded in her mouth. Meddie was digging in the bag, eager for more of the addictive candy. With full mouths, they thought out loud about what the others were doing at the meeting and how miserable they were.

"Yano, Schally n' Ack aw pwoably bort ouwt of der mines wight now," Victoria said, her voice muffled by all of the candy corn in her mouth. Meddie raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Meddie asked. Victoria chewed a little bit more and swallowed hard.

"I said, 'You know, Sally and Jack are probably bored out of their minds right now.'" Victoria explained. Meddie nodded, but she looked guilty.

"Maybe we shouldn't have left them there," Meddie mused over, "What if they really are going crazy?" Victoria laughed as she crammed her mouth with more candy corn.

"Yo wowwy oo musch."

"What?"

"I said, "You worry too much". Now, come on, I want to walk around town for a little bit. After we do that, we can check in on the Mayor and them. Okay?" Victoria asked. Meddie thought for a moment, and then she said okay. Her friend smiled, took her hand, and led her downtown where suspicion was soon to arise.

After a bit of walking around and meeting and greeting other citizens, Meddie was about as tired out as people get. She slumped down on a nearby tree stump. Victoria saw that she was worn out, and she sat on the ground beside her. Meddie looked at her and heaved a sigh.

"It would have been better for us to just stay through the meeting. All this walking is really taking its toll," Meddie complained. Victoria shook her head, clicking her tongue.

"Tut, tut. You can't tell me that Meddie the Great is getting…tired?" Victoria asked with exaggeration. Meddie rolled her eyes from behind her sunglasses, but Victoria didn't see. The older girl pleaded with Meddie, but she wouldn't budge from her seat even when Victoria bribed her. Finally, Victoria threw up her hands in defeat.

"You know what? Fine. We can go back to Town Hall, alright? I just wanted to explore a little. It's only the second time I've ever been here, that's all," Victoria spun her guilt trip out perfectly. Meddie shrugged and looked at her fingernails, spreading them out and inspecting them like a regular valley girl. A small grin flitted across her face. Victoria wasn't one to notice small details, though. She growled and started to head back to Town Hall. The smile on Meddie's face glittered, and she flounced over to Victoria with a smug look on her face.

Soon, civilization came back into view. The clouds were turning a milky white again, and all of the townspeople were now out and about fulfilling their duties as citizens of Halloween Town. Most of them were cleaning up the mess from the New Year's party. They waved at the girls as they passed by, and Meddie waved back enthusiastically. Victoria didn't do anything.

"Come on," she snapped, dragging Meddie along by the arm. Meddie followed along. Her smile contrasted greatly with Victoria's disappointed frown, but Meddie didn't seem to mind. In fact, she seemed perfectly happy until they came along. Halfway to the Town Hall, Victoria tripped over something big. She cried out as her feet flew out from under her, and she could hear someone else's muffled yell, too.

"Oh, man," Victoria hissed, pulling her sore leg closer to her. Out from underneath her tumbled Lock. He cursed as he rubbed his sore head, glaring at Victoria with his almond eyes. The devil got up. Footprints were left in the dirt as he stomped back over to his friends, who were all leering at Victoria like she was some kind of criminal. Meddie helped her up. After she brushed the dirt off of her pants, Victoria apologized to Lock.

"Sorry, Lock. I guess I didn't see you down there," she said. Shock and Barrel snickered and Lock flushed a crimson red that matched his outfit. His tail twitched angrily as he spoke.

"What? Are you calling me short or something?" Lock asked. Victoria blushed slightly. He only came up to a little bit over her waist, but she didn't want to offend him. Lock waited for an answer. Victoria half-mumbled a reply, and Shock and Barrel were now rolling on the ground with laughter. Lock looked over his shoulder at his friends, reddened even more, and got up as far as he could into Victoria's face.

"That's it! You asked for it!" Lock growled as he pounced at Victoria. Her eyes widened, and she dove out of the way of the angry devil. Lock tumbled as he missed her and cursed loudly. He sprang up from his somersault and jumped again reflexively, this time swiping Meddie's sunglasses off of her face. Lock landed a few feet away from her, holding the glasses triumphantly above his head.

"Look what I've got! Oh, wait…you can't, or else-"

"SHUT UP!" Meddie screamed. Her eyes were shut tight, and her pale face was rapidly turning a pinkish red out of fury. Tightly balled fists were clenched and at her sides. The children, who were now flat out guffawing, took off with her sunglasses and scampered away to their tree house. Victoria turned towards Meddie.

"Why can't you go after them?" she asked. Meddie shook her head and kept her eyes shut tight.

"I can't. You can. It's too dangerous without my glasses."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'll explain everything later. You go get the sunglasses. Hurry!" Meddie said urgently. Victoria glanced at Meddie once more before taking off in the other direction. She didn't see the tears start to stream down her friend's face.

* * *

_**Musically:** I wish I had tripped over Lock..._

_**Victoria**: I wish you had too. Then you'd be the one running the errand._


	7. Lies and Truths

_**Musically**: It's taking me so long for these chapters to get updated. Sorry, everyone. But here's a plus: VICTORIA IN PAIN! Hoorah! And here, now, the secret of Meddie's identity is revealed._

_**Victoria**: (gulps) I knew this was coming sooner or later..._

_**Max**: (smirks) You are so dead._

_**Victoria**: So are you._

_**Max**: Hey, she's right!_

* * *

"You three come back here!" Victoria yelled as she chased the trio, "That belongs to Meddie!"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel just laughed harder and made a beeline for the tree house with the sunglasses in tow. The trees seemed to close in on Victoria, reaching out to her with their grey, spindly branches. She pushed them out of the way. They left red marks on her face and arms as they scraped along her skin; it was as if they were trying to prevent her from going any further. Her breathing became heavy and rough as she went on.

"You're never gonna catch us!" Barrel taunted.

Shock cackled, "Keep running, Victoria! You've almost got us!"

Victoria growled and replied, "You're the one who needs to keep running!" She lunged for the children, but they were just out of reach. Lock's tail was trailing like a red ribbon behind him. A grab at that probably wouldn't catch him though, because it was too thin. The sunglasses were still in his hands. Victoria felt like breaking every bone in his fingers, but that could wait. If only she could get them.

The kids swerved around to the right. Victoria followed them and nearly lost her footing from turning so sharply. Their cackles buzzed in between her ears. She ground her teeth in frustration as Lock, Shock, and Barrel began to cross the little wooden bridge. Her steps slowed down as she reached the rickety old thing, which swung precariously over the chasm when she put her weight on it.

"Whoa!" Victoria said, trying to keep herself steady. Lock flashed an impish grin at her as he began to slice a rope with his end of his tail, which was as sharp as a razor. Her eyes widened.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Victoria stuttered, but it was too late. The rope frayed and the knot became undone, making one side of the bridge completely deflate. The wood dropped out from under her. She felt herself began to fall, so she thought quickly and grabbed on to the short side of the wood. Red hot pain shot into her hands from landing so hard on the lumber. Splinters poked her fingers. Lock started to cut the other rope.

Before he could deal the final blow, however, Shock smacked him over the head.

"Quit, stupid! If you undo that rope, then we won't be able to fix the rest later!" she scolded.

"Yeah, just get the glasses and let's go. I'm getting hungry," Barrel whined. He started to run off to the house with Shock close behind. Lock stuck his tongue out at Victoria and dashed off to join his friends. Victoria started to say something, but then she stopped herself. It wouldn't do any good right now. She had to figure out how she was going to get to the other side…An idea hit her almost instantly.

Victoria held her breath and lifted up a hand. She didn't even have time to blink before she felt the strain of her weight on one arm. Carefully, she moved her free hand further down on the wood. Inch by inch went by as she scooted down the side of the bridge. Soon, she had reached the end. Victoria wrapped an arm around the stake that had been hammered into the ground and managed to push herself up onto the reassuring ground.

"That was close," she muttered. Her hands were throbbing, though. She took a look at them. They had gone from being a little pale and cold to red, covered in splinters, and scratched. Victoria sighed and ran towards the tree house, where she could hear giggling coming from inside. She shuffled up the stairway and burst through the door.

A collective gasp came from the children as they saw Victoria, who was looking a lot like Jack in his scaring mode. Her brown hair was dirty and unkempt, and flares of anger sparked in her eyes. Slivers of white were showing from under her lips, which were actually her grinding teeth. Her fingernails even resembled claws as she balled them up into fists.

"Just give me the sunglasses," Victoria growled, "and I'll leave."

Lock, Shock, and Barrel looked at each other. Then they all burst out laughing, rolling on the ground and shaking with giggles. Victoria seemed to sizzle with anger for a minute.

She roared, "What, exactly, IS SO FUNNY?" Shock sat up and tilted her black hat (it had gone askew), looked at Victoria, and shook her head.

"I bet you don't even know why Meddie wears those sunglasses, do you?" Shock asked tauntingly. Victoria opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out. Shock was right. Quickly, Victoria answered the little witch and tried to sound smart.

"Well, if she wanted to tell me, she would have. I don't have to know why she wears them," Victoria replied in a haughty tone. Barrel smirked and scrambled on top of some crates that were stacked in the corner of the room. Casually, he dangled his three-toed feet off of the edge. He shot a smirk at Victoria when she glanced up at him.

"Meddie wouldn't want you to know, either," Barrel said.

Victoria raised an eyebrow, and said, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about why she wears the sunglasses. She's embarrassed by them. I bet you can't even guess why, can you?"

"I told you, I don't need to know why!" Victoria yelled. Lock smirked at her and climbed up on the tower of crates. He took a seat beside Barrel.

"It has to do with something that happened a long time ago, when she first came to Halloween Town!" Lock said, eager to tell Victoria the terrible news.

Shock joined her two companions on top of the boxes. Victoria felt slightly shorter with all of them staring down at her, so she straightened her posture out and looked at all of them defiantly.

"Were you three even there when Meddie first came here?" Victoria asked suspiciously.

"Oh, yes," Shock said with a coy grin, "We were."

"And something terrible happened!" Barrel exclaimed, throwing his arms open for emphasis. Victoria shook her head.

"I don't believe you. Just give me the glasses so I can get out of here," she ordered, holding out her hand. Lock grinned and showed her the glasses.

"You'll have to hear the rest of the story!" he said. Victoria crossed her arms, knowing that she really didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Fine. I'll hear the rest of the stupid story."

"Well, as I was saying," Barrel started, "something terrible happened when Meddie first came to Halloween Town."

"She met a new friend when she visited. He was a nice guy."

"Too bad we never saw him again!"

"Don't you wonder why we never saw him again?"

The children broke down into giggle fits. Victoria rolled her eyes; this was getting frustrating. She sighed and decided to curry their favors.

"Why didn't you ever see him again?" she asked in a bored voice.

Barrel answered, "Because Meddie turned him into a statue!"

"WHAT? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever-"

"It's true!" Lock shouted, "She's a medusa. She can do that kind of thing."

Victoria gave him an annoyed glance.

"What in the world is that supposed to mean?" she questioned angrily. She didn't like the fact that they knew something she didn't. For all she knew, they could be playing her for a sap, but she sure as heck wasn't going to let them.

"It means that she's not as normal as you think, smarty," Shock replied.

Barrel cut in, "Yeah! She can turn people into stone just by looking at them."

"She can talk to snakes!" Lock shouted.

"And when she doesn't have that spell put on her hair, it's actually a thousand snakes all on her head. It's kind of cool, actually," Shock said wistfully.

Victoria looked at all of them in disbelief.

"I don't believe a word of this. Even if it was true, Meddie would never do a thing like that. Turn someone into a statue, I mean," she said quickly.

"Oh, yes!"

"She did!"

"On purpose, too!"

Victoria fumed.

"You're all a bunch of little liars!" she screamed.

Shock said, "Come on, Victoria. We couldn't have come up with this all on our own."

Victoria didn't answer.

"She was banished from Halloween Town for it, too," Lock said, "That's why her family lives in the Land of the Dead."

"Yeah, they found a cure for that guy that she froze. He ran away, though. We've never seen him since," Barrel told her.

Victoria looked at him with soulless eyes. For a split second, Barrel almost felt sorry for her, but then he shook it off. However, he did slide the glasses off of the top of the box. It landed on the floor with a clatter.

"Barrel!" Lock said, kneeing him in the back. Barrel ignored him.

"There you go," Barrel said, "We wouldn't want Victoria turning into a statue, would we?"

"Yeah, it'd be too ugly to put on display!" Shock jeered. Lock and Barrel screeched with laughter. Victoria walked up, took the sunglasses, and left without a word. She exited the tree house, but still the cutting laughter of the kids rang in her ears and sliced through her heart like a dagger.

How could Meddie have turned someone to stone on purpose? No, she couldn't have done it. Those kids were just a bunch of liars. All of them were. Anger flooded her soul as she got to the edge of the chasm. Victoria picked up a rock and flung it into the deep canyon, waiting for the sound of it hitting the bottom. Nothing came. She didn't care; she was so mad. She was mad at the kids for lying and mad at the town for banishing Meddie. Whose idea was that? And speaking of ideas, how was she going to get over the gap?

Victoria took a deep breath. She backed up a ways, took a running start, and leapt over the canyon. For a moment, she felt like she was flying. Then she landed down hard on the other side, thankfully, and started to run over to where she knew Meddie was waiting. After a few minutes, she saw Meddie standing in the exact same spot. Her eyes were still closed. Victoria felt a pang of sympathy for her friend, but she walked over and slid the sunglasses over Meddie's face.

"Victoria, you found them!" Meddie exclaimed. Her face fell when she saw Victoria's.

"What's wrong? It's okay, I guess. I told you that I would explain everything, so here it goes," Meddie said. She took a deep breath to begin, but Victoria shook her head.

"Meddie, I," Victoria began, "well, I already know." Meddie looked taken aback.

"You know that I'm-"

"A medusa? Yeah. And how they kicked you out of Halloween Town for turning a guy into stone. I know, okay?" Victoria said. Meddie's expression was totally shocked.

"Excuse me?"

"Meddie…please tell me they were lying."

"I don't know who 'they' are, but yes! They are lying! Just because I can do that doesn't mean I would!" Meddie yelled. Her pale face was flushed with anger.

"Everyone thinks that I'm dangerous, or that I was just made for destruction. Well, guess what? I'm not just a weapon! I'm not a monster, okay?"

Victoria answered, "Meddie, I didn't call you a monster! I don't think you're a weapon. What are you telling yourself?"

Meddie didn't answer her.

"Meddie, you're my friend. You're not a monster. I know that you would never do a thing like that on purpose. I'm so sorry…I shouldn't have listened to them," Victoria apologized. Meddie nodded her head slowly and started to walk towards Town Hall.

"Come on, let's go," Meddie said softly. Wordlessly, Victoria followed her friend.

* * *

_Musically: (headdesk) What's up with all of these crappy chapter endings? WHAT?_

_  
__Victoria: Maybe you're just a crappy writer- ULGH! (gets strangled by Musically)_

_Musically: Oh yeah. Thanks to all of my loyal reviewers! Keep them coming!_


	8. Another Nightmare

**Musically: _Yay, I'm getting into the more active chapters._ **

**Victoria: _Crap! That means..._**

**Musically: _You bet! More people in pain. Enjoy!_**

* * *

It wasn't long before Victoria and Meddie reached the Town Hall, where Max was sleeping on the stairs. The girls exchanged confused looks before Meddie ran over to the skeleton. She shook him gently on the shoulder.

"Max, wake up. Is the meeting over?" Meddie asked. Max yawned loudly, blinked groggily at his sister and got up and stretched. He extended his fingers out in front of him and cracked them noisily, making Meddie cringe. "Max! You know I hate it when you do that!"

"Yeah, I know. Why else would I do it?" Max said with a grin. Victoria shook her head.

"Max. Is the meeting over or not?" she questioned sternly. Max raised an eyebrow (or at least he would have, if there was one).

"Hey, what are you, my mom?" he snapped. Victoria glared at him, but he just held up his hands in a quit-being-so-serious motion. "Sorry. But yeah, the meeting ended a while back. Jack and Sally headed home to make dinner, but I decided to wait here for you guys. Took you long enough."

"Hey!" Victoria protested, "What's with you?"

"Yeah, Max. Stop being mean," Meddie said quietly. Max looked at the both of them, and then he let out a long sigh.

"Sorry," said Max again, "Let's go home, okay? Maybe I'm just hungry."

"It wouldn't be the first time," Meddie laughed. Max slugged her playfully on the shoulder.

He chuckled, "Hey, knock it off. Come on, it's not far from here." The trio raced each other to the door, where Sally and Jack were waiting for them at the doorway. Sweet aromas drifted out the door. They simply couldn't wait to taste Sally's excellent cooking, so they all rushed to the mansion. When they climbed the stairs, though, they saw that Jack and Sally did not look amused. Victoria stopped at the door. Max and Meddie bumped into her from behind, and then they stood beside her.

Slow but angry growls came from Jack, and Sally's expression rivaled that of a strict and stern governess. Her hands were on her hips. Jack was staring threateningly at all three of them, and in turn they all seemed to shrink backwards into each other. The skeleton took a deep breath and began to speak.

"Listen!" Jack shouted. His voice was rough and sharp like a knife, and it made Max, Meddie, and Victoria flinch. "I am only going to say this once, and you three had better have a suitable explanation for this. Sally and I have been sick with worry, wondering what might have happened to the three children that happen to be our responsibility! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"

It was terrifying, really, to have the Pumpkin King glaring like a hungry bear at you and roaring into your ears. Victoria pushed down the urge to scream.

She exchanged worried glances with Meddie, while Max just stood stock still with an almost guilty look on his face. None of them had the courage to answer.

"WELL?"

"I'm sorry!" Victoria spoke up, "We lost track of time!"

"Yes, Uncle Jack! It wasn't our fault, I promise!" Meddie pleaded. Sally crossed her arms in front of her chest. While she didn't look nearly as menacing as Jack did, she sounded like an angry queen when she spoke.

"Whose fault was it then, Meddie?" Sally asked. The icy edge in her voice was unpleasant and cold, unlike anything Victoria had ever heard her say.

"Lock, Shock, and Barrel's!" Victoria and Meddie said simultaneously. Jack let out a large sigh that sounded more like a rumbling growl.

"Of course, it was all their fault. How, may I ask, did that terrible trio keep you away from home for almost an hour?" Jack bellowed.

Victoria said, "Well, it's kind of a long story."

"They stole my sunglasses," Meddie explained, "so Victoria had to go after them and then we got into a little fight but we're over it now and everyone's okay so can we please go inside and get some dinner because it smells good and I'm hungry."

Everyone seemed a bit taken aback for a moment, but then Jack pointed to Max. He glared at the two girls for a moment before addressing his nephew.

"And what's your excuse, Maxwell?" Jack said. Max cringed. He hated when people used his proper name.

"Uncle Jack, I was just waiting on them."

"That's…understandable. You can go inside," Jack said. Sally stepped aside and Max cast a remorseful glance back at Victoria and Meddie before going into the house.

"As for you two," Jack started. Victoria cut in.

"Hey!" she said, "I thought we already established that it was their fault!"

Jack suddenly seemed taller than he ever had before. His white skull glistened with a ghostly pallor in the moonlight, which enhanced his ghoulish appearance. His face was contorted into an furious scowl. Bony fingers reached out to Victoria like claws, and she leaned back as far as she could go without falling over.

"You," he roared, "shall never, ever raise your voice to me while I am being so kind as to let you stay in my home!" Victoria looked up at him with sorrowful, fearful eyes. Meddie appeared to be on the verge of tears.

"For your disobedience and ungratefulness, the both of you are going to bed without any dinner tonight. Go! NOW!" Jack practically screamed as he held open the door. Without a second thought, Victoria and Meddie scurried up the spiral staircase and out of sight. Jack rubbed his sore temples as soon as they were gone. It had been a long, long day.

* * *

As soon as she entered the bedroom, Victoria kicked the wall and flopped down on the bed. Sparks of rage flickered in her green eyes. Her fists clenched and unclenched and she ground her teeth together in anger. Calmly, Meddie came to sit by her. She smoothed out the orange and black quilt before getting settled down, quite the opposite of Victoria at the moment.

"I can't believe this!" Victoria grumbled, "What's up with Jack?" Meddie gave her a sympathetic look.

"Well, he has been awfully busy with all of the Halloween preparations and such," Meddie mused, "Maybe he's just taking it out on us."

"He's got a fine way of showing it."

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't mean to. In a day or so, it'll all blow over. Besides, you've eaten enough candy corn today to feed three people; you don't need anymore to eat!"

Victoria smiled and tossed a pillow at Meddie.

"Shut up, you."

They both laughed for a second, but then Meddie noticed that Victoria still looked sad. She edged a bit closer to her friend. Victoria turned the other way, not wanting Meddie to see her.

"Victoria, what's wrong?"

"Well…"

"Well, what?"

"I was getting to it. Jack's never really been this angry before. It kind of, you know, scared me."

"There's nothing to be scared of; it's just Uncle Jack."

"Think of it this way, Meddie: Jack represents everything that is terrifying and horrible back where I come from, and to see him in full scaring mode is enough to make you want to curl up and die."

"Why don't you tell him that?"

Victoria sat straight up on the bed, giving Meddie a you-must-be-crazy look.

"Heck no! Either he'll get even angrier, or he'll think he's a terrible person," Victoria said.

"A monster."

"Exactly. I can't have him think that."

Meddie sighed softly, and she patted Victoria on the shoulder.

"I guess you don't have to, then," Meddie said. Victoria nodded and let out a yawn, tired out from being scared out of her wits. "You look tired. Maybe you should get to bed."

Victoria shrugged and replied, "Yeah, okay. You too." Meddie smiled, gave Victoria a hug, and headed downstairs.

A few minutes later, Victoria was in her pajamas and nestled in the covers, heading off to a nightmarish sleep…

* * *

_She was back there. The glittering casino lights, the skeletons in the vice, and the neon bats fluttering above the ceiling were all there. Victoria could almost hear the trumpet music playing in the background, blasting out Oogie's song with flat notes and an offbeat rhythm. She shuddered. That song only foreshadowed his arrival, which she began to dread as the music slowed to a stop._

_When the last of the crooked melody faded away, Oogie waddled into the light. He grinned wickedly. He threw back his floppy head in laughter, and his round, sagging stomach bobbed up and down. Victoria tried to look away, but she couldn't. She seemed frozen to the spot, unable to move. After what felt like an eternity passed, the evil man stopped laughing and headed over to where Victoria was._

_With some effort, she managed to snarl, "What do you want? Why am I back here again? How are you doing this to me?"_

_Oogie replied, "Now, now, Victoria! So many questions and such little time. It's a shame, really, that you waste your time with questions when there are much, MUCH higher things at stake." He tossed his signature pair of red dice in the air, catching them and throwing them at a skeleton. The dice clacked around in its skull before dropping on a table below._

_Oogie went over to the table, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. When he saw the product, he laughed out loud._

_"HA! Snake eyes, Victoria. You know who that reminds me of?" he mused casually. _

_"I don't care who it reminds you of," Victoria spat. Oogie's mouth twisted into a smile. _

_"Oh, I think that you **do **care who it reminds me of," the boogieman said. He shuffled over to a slot machine in the corner, which was lit brightly and making a lot of noise as the three rolls spun. They all landed on skulls. Oogie grabbed the machine by the side, spun it around, and moved out of the way so Victoria could see._

_"MEDDIE!" Victoria cried in horror. The other side of the slot machine had hidden a cell. Large, thick iron bars imprisoned Meddie, who was standing defiantly up in her prison and was gripping the bars with both hands. Something was different about her, though. Victoria gasped as she realized that the spell had been lifted. Meddie's brown hair had transformed into about thirty copper-scaled snakes, all of which were glaring at Oogie and hissing madly. Her sunglasses, thankfully, were still on her head._

_"Victoria?" Meddie asked. Her voice sounded weak and tired. Victoria would've slapped Oogie if she could actually move her hand. She felt her face burn with anger, and it only got worse when Oogie began to laugh again._

_"Oh, isn't that just sweet? Let me guess: You two are best friends forever?" Oogie cackled. Victoria's green eyes were wide with fury._

_"What have you done to her?" Victoria screamed. Oogie gave her a look of mock fear, holding up his hands and backing away. Then he guffawed raucously, doubling over and slapping his knee. He wiped away a non-existing tear and then he got up in Victoria's face. She recoiled; his breath reeked of mildew and dirt._

_"Don't you get it, Victoria, dear?" Oogie hissed, "It's all part of the plan! For once in my life, it's all falling into place!" Victoria opened her mouth to speak, but Oogie held a floppy hand to her lips._

_"Ah-ah-ah!" he said, "Don't even start to ask. I'm not stupid, you know. This time, I'm not revealing any secret plans or schemes, no sir! You'll find out soon enough, anyhow. My revenge…is imminent!" _

_Victoria taunted, "So you've learned a few new vocabulary words. Big deal. It doesn't matter what kind of sick, twisted plot you've thought up this time; it's still not going to work."_

_"Oh, and I'm sure you, that rag doll, and Jack are all going to come in and save the day. Ha! Well, we'll just see about that, Victoria. Yes, we will just have to wait and see!" Oogie said._

_Victoria was burning a hole through Oogie with her glaring, but he didn't seem to notice. Suddenly, loud, ringing chimes boomed through his lair. Oogie spun around. A large, orange and black grandfather clock loomed over him, and the bells inside were clanging and clamoring in a strange rhythm. The boogieman laughed again, and then he looked at Victoria._

_"Well, it looks like our time is up. But wait! Tell my good friend Jack that he can look all he wants, but they will never be found. That is, unless my demands are met." _

_"What are you talking about?" Victoria said, but it was too late. The whole lair seemed to be fading away. Meddie held out a desperate hand to Victoria, but in an instant, everything was gone…

* * *

_

Victoria woke up with a start. Her bedroom door had been flung open, and through her blurry vision she could see three figures in the room with her. She rubbed her eyes. The memory of the dream was in her head, and it was beginning to scare her. She had to know where Meddie was.

"Where- where is she?" Victoria said sleepily. Her sight was starting to clear up now; she could see Sally by the door and Jack standing beside her. Max was closer to the bed. They all wore worried looks. For a moment, all three exchanged terrified glances before Sally spoke up.

"Where is who, Victoria?" Sally asked. Victoria didn't like the sound of her voice. It seemed pinched, dreading, and doleful all at the same time.

"Meddie. Where is she?"

"Meddie is…" Jack started, but couldn't seem to form the words. Max grabbed Victoria by the arm. Victoria looked at him, and she saw that his eye sockets were deep with worry.

"Victoria," Max said, "Meddie's gone."

* * *

**Musically: _So, what happens next? Find out next time on Freeze Tag! Hey! Ouch! (gets hit by Victoria repeatedly)_**

**Victoria: _YOU BRING HER BACK! BRING HER BACK RIGHT NOW!_**

**Musically: _Reviews- ouch! - welcome!_**


	9. The Search Commences

**Musically: _Okay, I'm updating faster now. It's the new and improved Musically! Twice the update, half the fat! (flexes weak arm muscles)_**

**Victoria:_ I'm not speaking to you. (turns away)_**

**Musically: _About time. Now, on with the chapter! Oh, and a big fat thank you to Sweet Nightmare and Nausicaa for reviewing. You gals rock!_**

* * *

After many worried conversations and disproved ideas, Jack finally suggested a search party. The four of them (that is, Jack, Max, Sally, and Victoria) marched solemnly to the Mayor's house, which was uncannily close to Town Hall. Jack walked up to the door. He pressed a pumpkin-shaped doorbell, and Victoria heard funeral music echo through the rooms of the house. A muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Oh, this had better be important," mumbled the Mayor as he opened the door. Despite the bitter mood, Victoria found it hard to keep herself from bursting out with laughter when she saw the Mayor. Obviously, he had been interrupted from his beauty treatment. Green cucumbers covered his eyes, and the strong scent of avocados drifted towards her, most likely because of his facial mask. A pastel orange and purple robe was wrapped around him. To finish off this amusing outfit, he was wearing fuzzy bat slippers with wings that dragged on the floor.

The Mayor peeled off the cucumbers, revealing a pair of irritated-looking eyes that matched his blue face. A pink blush began to crawl up the Mayor's cheeks. He jumped slightly behind the door so that his robe was covered up, and it took him a few seconds before he found the courage to speak.

"What are all of you doing here?" the Mayor asked. Jack's face was priceless. He seemed about as horrified as the Mayor was, but after he regained his composure, he answered.

"Well, it's important that you should know. Meddie, my niece, has gone missing. I, the Pumpkin King, request that you assist me in organizing a search party," Jack said regally. Max, Sally, and Victoria nodded from behind him. The Mayor's gaze shifted to all of them in turn, and then he threw his hands up in the air.

"Oh, very well. Just as soon as I get ready," the Mayor muttered.

Jack replied, "Call for a town meeting in one hour. I'll see you then."

The door shut in his face. Jack turned to the others, and he motioned for them to leave. They went back to the Skellington Manor to wait for an hour, all fearing the worst for dear Meddie. No one really wanted to talk about it, though it seemed like their emotions were all laid out on their sleeves.

Sally's eyes were wide with fright and sorrow, and the slightest noise seemed to make her jump as she walked to the house. Jack was muttering things under his breath, most likely blaming himself for what had happened. On the other hand, Max was looking remorseful and guilty. Perhaps his conscience was gaining up on him for all of those years of pestering his little sister. And Victoria? She seemed to be the worst of all. All of the emotions she could have ever felt in a situation such as this: anger, fear, worry, guilt, and sadness…they had all been rolled up into one and placed deep inside her. Pain was the only thing she could truly feel right now.

"Here we are," Jack said needlessly. He was trying to fill the silence that was haunting them all, but somehow he only made it worse. Victoria shook her head and went inside. Max followed her. Sally started to go inside and then she stopped as she realized Jack wasn't coming. She put a hand on his arm.

"Jack, dearest Jack. Please, come inside," Sally pleaded, but Jack wouldn't budge. He shook his skull slowly, but then it became quicker and he threw his long, skeletal hands up in the air.

"Don't act like this, Sally! Don't make it look like it's not my fault, because you know it is!" Jack yelled. He let his arms fall limply to his sides, and then he turned away and looked out onto the town. "You know it is."

Sally didn't know quite how to respond to this.

She said, "Jack, whatever do you mean? Meddie wasn't kidnapped because of you. How could you say such a thing?" Jack glanced over his shoulder, cast a mournful look at Sally, and then he looked away again.

"We don't know if she was kidnapped or not, Sally. She could have run away. I'm surprised Victoria didn't go, too."

"Jack, I don't understand."

"How can you not understand, Sally?" Jack asked desperately, "You were there last night, for God's sake. I was under too much pressure, and I took it out on them…for all I know, Meddie could be starving right now and it's all my fault."

Sally put a comforting hand on Jack's bony shoulder. He lifted up a skeletal palm to touch it, but then he let it flop down again.

"Jack," Sally whispered as she leaned in towards him, "Don't blame yourself. If anything, you should be wanting to find Meddie, not just beat yourself up because she's gone. Angry words aren't going to solve this, Jack. Action is."

A small smile tugged at the ends of Jack's mouth.

"Sally, you're right. I can't just mope around; that won't do anything! Come on. Let's go organize a search plan. We'll have Meddie found in no time!" Jack exclaimed. Sally leaned in closer and kissed his cheek.

"That's the spirit, dear," she said. Jack kissed her as well, except this time he caught Sally in his arms, brought her down tango-style (nearly to the floor), and kissed her on the lips. Sally blushed and giggled when Jack brought her back up.

"Come, my Pumpkin Queen! There are plans to be made. Meddie shall be lost no more!"

The couple entered the house, slamming the door behind them.

* * *

The door slammed behind Victoria, hitting an unlucky Max in the face as she did so. A muffled "Ouch!" came from the other side of the door, but she didn't care. All she cared about was finding Meddie. In her point of view, though, no one else seemed to want to. She collapsed onto the bed, clearly exhausted from going through the shock of losing her friend. Tears started to stain the pillow she laid her head down on.

Max burst through the door after he recovered. The moment he did, he regretted it. A pillow came launching at him at mach five, colliding with his skull and making him fall backwards towards the door.

"Hey!" he protested, but his yell was muted by the pillow. Max ripped it off of his face. Victoria was hunched over on the bed, glaring angrily at him.

"What's the matter with you?" Max shouted.

Quietly, Victoria answered, "There's no need to yell. I'm mad too."

"Mad at what?" Max asked, his voice softening. The old saying, misery loves company, was taking effect as he sat down on the bed beside Victoria. Unlike before, she didn't scoot away this time. No, she stayed. Victoria stared wistfully at the spot on the bed that Max was sitting in, remembering her and Meddie's talk. She tried to make the memories fade, but they wouldn't go.

"Everything. Like, why do we have to wait an hour to go find Meddie? We should be able to search now. If anyone really wanted to find her, we'd go ahead and start!" Victoria said.

Max walked over to a window on a wall, pulling up the black blinds when he got close enough. The dreary landscape outside showed the grey hills. Through the thick mist, Victoria could see the Mayor's strange car rolling over the land, calling all for a town meeting. Max let the blinds fall and looked at Victoria.

"If we really want to find Meddie, we'll need help," Max said, "That's what the extra hour is for. Once enough people realize what is going on, they'll want to help."

"Max, what is going on? I'm so confused," Victoria admitted. Max opened his mouth, but then he closed it as he realized he didn't actually know what to say. He didn't have to say anything, though. Victoria kept talking.

"I mean, I know you've known her for mostly all of your life. You've known her for all of her life, anyways. So, it makes sense that you probably miss her more."

"Yes, but what's that got to do with it?"

"It's strange," Victoria said carefully, as if she were measuring each word, "I only met her yesterday, but it feels like I've known her forever. Have you ever felt like that?" Again, Max was at a loss for words. He never really had a chance to talk about, well, _feelings. _

"I don't know," Max said. Victoria looked disheartened, so Max racked his brain for a good answer.

"Well, actually, I think I do know," he said quickly, "You know Harley? Harlequin Demon?" Victoria nodded slowly. "Well, he's one of my best friends. When we first met, it seemed like we were brothers or something. Is that what you're talking about?"

"Yeah, Max. It is. And I know I'll probably never feel the pain that you or Jack do right now. For you, Meddie's flesh and blood. But for me? I don't know. It hurts, though, Max," Victoria said. She willed herself not to cry, even though the lump in her throat was getting bigger and her eyes burned with unshed tears. Max looked away. Victoria was right; it did hurt. Even though Meddie could be annoying, she was always nice and did the right thing…she was his little sister.

"You know what I miss the most about her right now?" Max whispered.

"What?"

"I remember when she was maybe five, or six. Every night she'd have me come into her room to check for monsters. Not the nice kind, either, the bad ones," Max said. Victoria felt a smile coming on in spite of herself.

"So I'd look in the closet, under the bed, and in the sock drawer, and I'd always tell her that there weren't any bad monsters. There were only good ones who'd give her sweet dreams," Max said. He paused for a second.

"And then…and then she'd say, 'Max, you're so brave. I'm glad I have a big brother like you.'" Max laughed weakly, and then he gave Victoria a bittersweet glance. "Silly, right?"

Victoria shook her head vigorously, saying, "No, no! Max, don't say that. Please. I know you're a guy, and this could be hard to admit, but you love your sister. And right now you miss her. There's nothing silly about that."

"I know. It's just…God, I miss her."

"It's okay, Max. I do too."

They sat it silence for a second before a scream echoed through the house.

"That'll be the Mayor," Jack said from downstairs, "Come on, Victoria! Max! Let's go!"

Victoria got up off of the bed and headed towards the door, but she stopped when she realized that Max wasn't following. She walked over to him and squeezed his hand. He looked up at her in surprise.

"Come on, Max. We can find her."

Max swallowed hard and nodded. He followed Victoria out the door and out of the house.

* * *

The Town Hall was bustling with motion, and the citizens were eager to know what they were all there for. A lingering fear of another Christmas remake was sitting in their souls, but for right now they chose to ignore it. Perhaps it would be something better. The monsters settled into their seats as Jack rose up the podium.

"Dear friends," Jack said, "As you may or may not have noticed, one of us is missing."

An outbreak of frantic whispering exploded in the crowd. Heads whipped around, searching for anything missing or out of place. Jack cleared his throat loudly in an attempt to get their attention.

"I'm sure you are all familiar with Meddie Skellington, my niece. This morning, we found that she was missing, either having run away or worse, kidnapped. However, I want to make sure that she gets home safely. Now, only a few people setting out to find someone is nice, but a whole town would get the job done. With a search party, Meddie will be back in no time at all! Who's with me?" Jack explained.

The citizens cheered. Jack's insides were filled with grief and guilt, but it slightly faded away as he heard the townspeople's cries. All of these people, willing to help find a single missing person…he was touched. Jack had them line up in a single file order, sorted them into three teams, and set them out on their destinations. Black Team headed towards the Hinterlands, Orange Team searched the other holidays, and Red Team stayed in Halloween Town in case she came back.

Jack and Victoria went with the Orange Team to make sure that they didn't mess up the other holidays while Sally and Max searched with the Red Team in Halloween Town. The only thing anyone could hear were desperate cries of, "Meddie!" No sarcophagi were left unopened, no mausoleum went unchecked, and all of the pumpkin patches were tromped through. They even dredged the lake. No matter where they looked, though, Meddie was nowhere to be found.

The Orange Team had similar luck. They had nearly been killed in Christmas Town; Jack had to explain the situation to Santa before he let him cross the borders again. The Easter Bunny certainly hadn't forgotten his ordeal. He was a pain to deal with, and the monsters were afraid of the pastel colors and small animals. Valentine's Day Town was even worse. Thanksgiving Town was too fattening, Independence Day Town was too loud, and they nearly went blind from all the green in St. Patrick's Day Town. Meddie wasn't in any holiday.

At the end of the day, the Orange and Red Team met up in Halloween Town. They mourned their loss, hoping that Black Team would report better luck when they came in tomorrow.

"Tomorrow?" Victoria asked Jack, "What about tonight?"

"A trip to the Hinterlands and back takes quite a long time," Jack explained, "That's why I only chose the very fittest to go. They should be back by tomorrow."

Later that night at the Skellington Manor, the house seemed quieter than usual. Victoria was quick to get upstairs, change into her pajamas, and crawl into bed. She felt like dying. All that work to find Meddie, and what of it? She was gone. Hopelessly, utterly gone.

* * *

**Musically: _So, the next chapter will be better and more action-packed. Twice the action, half the Victoria!_**

**Victoria: _(glares)_**

**Musically: _Aw, you know I was kidding._**


	10. Sleepless Night

**Musically: _Okay, the big One-O. Chapter Ten. A decade of chapters. Wow. Thanks for all the reviews, y'all! Now, my personal commentary on each._**

**Mr. Oogie Boogie:_ Of course the Mayor does beauty treatment! How else could he keep himself looking so dang HAWT?_**

**Nausicca: _I'm still not so sure if I'm going to keep Mayor's Paradise a oneshot or not. We'll just have to see. _**

**Sweet Nightmare: _I know, aren't they? I think Victoria may be eating too much snake and spider stew before bed!_**

**_And for anyone who wishes to know, I kind of made part of this chapter a songfic. The song's called "I Need Some Sleep" by Eels. Enjoy!_**

* * *

The clock by Victoria's bed buzzed, signaling the new hour. She glanced over at it. Bright orange numbers flashed at her: 12:00 A.M. It was midnight, and she still hadn't gotten any rest. Every time she tried to close her eyes, it seemed that they flicked back open again. Trying to sleep was useless. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and slid off the side of the mattress, trying to be as quiet as she could as she headed over to the door on the far left of the loft.

Victoria twisted the brass knob. The door swung open, revealing towering bookshelves filled with rustic, antique books with hard leather covers that had faded away over the course of two or three hundred years. Tables were lined up against the side of the room. The floor tiles joined together, alternating colors to form a large, expanding spiral that looked like the vortex that she came to Halloween Town in. She crossed over to the middle of the room, standing on the spiral's center. Then she looked to the window. A table was sitting just under it, and a few empty test tubes lay forgotten on its surface. Victoria looked away quickly. Even after a month Victoria remembered Jack's mistake.

She was quick to look away and head towards the bookshelf, remembering her mission. At first Victoria was overwhelmed, not knowing which shelf to start at, or even which book to choose. Then something caught her eye. A large cabinet with several small drawers was sitting at the far corner of the room, and when she opened one of the drawers she saw that it was a card catalog. She didn't have time to wonder who labeled all of these books. She immediately set to work and flung the drawer with the letter 'M' printed on it.

"Monsters, monsters, monsters," Victoria muttered as she flipped through the cards. "Oh! Here it is." She examined the card, and it had several books on the topic of monsters listed on it. Victoria stared at it for a second. She wasn't sure which one to pick, so she decided that she'd just skim over them to see if they had the information she wanted. She'd have to get them all.

Third shelf from the left, top shelf, read the card. Victoria sighed. She'd have to use the ladder, and it didn't look very safe. She tucked the card into her pocket, closed the drawer, and headed over to the rickety old thing, looking at it warily. With caution, she tested the bottom rung with her foot. The olden wood creaked a little, but it didn't break, or even splinter. Jack kept in surprisingly good condition.

Within a few seconds, Victoria had climbed up the ladder and was pulling books off the top of the shelf, all with titles such as "Monsters: Identifying and Finding" and "So, You Want to Identify a Monster And All of Their Subsequent Traits". Once she had cleared the shelf of any monster-related books, Victoria set to work. She skimmed over them for anything on medusas. There were plenty of articles about werewolves, vampires, and zombies, but she couldn't find anything that could pertain to Meddie at all. Then, out of the blue, she found something. It was an entry about how to recognize medusas, which might be helpful on finding Meddie. Maybe.

"One of the most dangerous creatures known, a medusa can easily be identified by a few distinguishing features," Victoria read quietly. She snorted. When she had first met Meddie, she had thought she was an average human. Nevertheless, she kept reading.

"Instead of hair, the medusa has several snakes for hair. These snakes are generally poisonous as one can tell by their pointed heads. One should never get too close to one of these snakes, because when the medusa is agitated they will strike. The poison is deadly and can kill a human in less than a minute."

Victoria gulped. She saw what Meddie's snakes looked like, and she could just picture one sinking their needle sharp fangs into her arm…she shook the image out of her mind. Her eyes continued to scan the page.

"There is a complicated spell, however, that will allow the snakes to look like normal hair. However, the 'hair' will take on the exact coloration of the snakes, whatever the colors may be."

_So that's why it looked like she was normal, _Victoria thought, _but I wonder why it was made of snakes in the dream?_

"When a medusa is extremely frightened or angry, its hair will revert to the normal state."

"Oh," Victoria muttered, finding it strange that this book was answering all her questions. She shrugged and kept on.

"The second trait, while hard to catch, is that a medusa can talk to snakes. Many people have reported medusa ordering these reptiles to attack others, just another way that the medusa can cause destruction."

Victoria's eyebrows furrowed. Whoever wrote this thing was being slightly helpful, but his biased view on medusas annoyed her. They had obviously not gotten to know one. She forced herself to keep reading, though.

"Lastly, the feature that can help distinguish a medusa is their silvery-grey eyes. One glimpse of these eyes can turn any living person into stone. There is a cure for this predicament, though."

Victoria's eyes widened. There was a cure? Now interested, she looked on.

"The Staff of Stone, which is used to freeze people into statues by touching one with its tip, is quite rare and hidden in a secret location. However, if one were to find it and reverse its effects, it would be guaranteed to cure anyone victim to this curse."

"That could be helpful," Victoria muttered. She mentally recorded the page number in her mind before heading to the next book. That one hadn't really told her anything that could help free or find Meddie. She spent the next hours poring over books, and a certain song she had heard many times before came to her mind…

**I need some sleep**

**I can't go on like this**

**I try counting sheep**

**But there's one I always miss**

Little did she know that Max was having a night that was just as miserable. From his spot downstairs on the couch, he stared at the ceiling. A day had passed-or was it two?- since Meddie had vanished, and still he couldn't seem to accept it. Meddie, who had always followed him around, who had always bugged the hell out of him, who had always told him how great of a brother he was, was gone. How could this have happened?

**Everyone says I'm getting down too low**

**Everyone says I just gotta let it go**

**"You just gotta let it go"**

**I just gotta let it go**

Max tossed over onto his side. He closed his eye sockets, squeezing shut, but they just seemed to open again automatically. It was no use; he couldn't sleep. He rolled over so he was on his stomach (or at least, he would be if he had one). Memories from olden times replayed themselves in his mind, good and bad, all with Meddie somehow involved. He remembered the way she smiled and laughed, and the way she cried and screamed. Could she really be gone forever?

**I need some sleep**

**Time to put the old horse down**

**I'm in too deep**

**And the wheels keep spinning round**

Quietly, Max got up. He crossed over to the shelves by the wall, careful not to make any noise to wake up the others. The shelves were filled with pictures and such, along with several Christmas/Halloween knick knacks. A lump arose in Max's throat. There, in the center, was a picture of Meddie and him as kids, hugging each other.

"Oh, God," Max choked out.

**Everyone says I'm getting down too low**

**Everyone says I just gotta let it go**

**"You just gotta let it go"**

**I just gotta let it go**

Numbly, Max walked back to his makeshift bed. He grabbed a cushion from the other end, and he put it under his skull. So many things were drifting through the endless space of his mind. He just couldn't force himself to forget everything…He just couldn't let it go that easily. A silent sob escaped him as he pressed his face into the pillow.

**You just gotta let it go  
You just gotta let it go  
You just gotta let it go**

After a few more hours, Max drifted into a dreamless, fitful sleep. The picture hung loosely from his bony fingers.

Victoria closed the last book. She hadn't found out much more than she had on the half-useful article, and already she was beginning to forget the information. She sighed and looked out the window. A pale white moon glowed in the sky, casting down its silvery beams to the ground below. Stars glittered along side it as they danced in the black clouds. Victoria began to wish on all of them, hoping that Meddie would be found safe and alive.

Victoria flinched inwardly. For all she knew, Meddie could be dead right now. Well, at least more dead than Jack or Max. She began to pace around the library, feeling restless, irritated, and unable to get any rest. Victoria knew that Jack and everyone else meant well, but the search party idea was getting them nowhere. Searching the same place day after day was not going to help, and the ones in the Hinterlands were certainly not coming back anytime soon.

Something had to be done. Someone had to take some real action, and someone had to be willing to risk their lives for a friend. Victoria swallowed hard. She knew what she had to do. Without another thought in her head, she exited the library and went into her room, changing into her regular clothes and making the bed. Her mind was screaming, "No! Don't put yourself in more danger! Don't let Jack and Sally worry even more!" Her heart, however, told her different. It said, "A small amount of worry is nothing compared to someone's life."

Victoria went downstairs and was careful not to let any steps creak. Tears arose in her eyes as she heard Jack's snoring, but she pushed them back. She had almost gotten to the door when she heard footsteps behind her. She stopped in her tracks.

"Where are you going?" asked Max, who was standing right behind Victoria. Victoria cursed in her mind. She swiveled around on her heel and saw that his eyes were wide and curious, but at the same time strangely sad.

"I'm going to save Meddie. No one else seems to care that she's gone. These search parties aren't helping, and, well, I'm going to take some action. You can't stop me, Max," Victoria whispered fiercely. Max looked at her for a second, and Victoria felt a horrible pang of guilt.

"I care," Max said, "and I'm going too."

"Oh, Max," Victoria whispered, her voice softening. It was seriously touching to hear that, on Meddie's part, anyways. "Are you sure?"

"Victoria, she's my sister. I can't let her go."

"You're a good brother, Max. Better than good."

Victoria swore she saw a flicker of a smile on Max's face, but she couldn't see much else as he walked up to the door in front of her. He twisted the knob, and the door opened, revealing a star-filled night and the awaiting land.

"Shall we, then?" Max said with a grin. Victoria smiled back.

"We shall."

The two walked into the night, heading for the promising horizon ahead. They savored the sweet moments together while they could.

* * *

**Musically: _You're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz!_**

**Max: _Is she always like this?_**

**Victoria: _sigh More than you know..._**


	11. A Storm Is Brewing

**Musically: _Sorry for the unintended hiatus, everybody, but I've had some trouble in real life. I'm better now, though! This is kind of a carry-over chapter, and the next one will be much more exciting, promise!_**

**Victoria: _(grabs script for next chapter) Let me see!_**

**Musically: _(snatches it back) Nooo! You'll hurt me!_**

* * *

Jack awoke to the sound of the skeleton rooster crowing on the chimney top, flapping its wings noisily as it did. He rubbed his eyes a few times and yawned. The other side of the bed started to shift, and soon Sally was propped up against the headboard right beside him. Jack smiled. Her auburn hair was frizzy and tangled, her pajamas were askew and hanging off her shoulder, and her eyes were only half opened, but she still seemed as beautiful as ever to him. Sally let out a small yawn that was more like a sigh. Jack wrapped his long, skeletal arms around her and let her lean into his hug.

"Good morning, my love," Jack whispered into her ear. Sally gave him a kiss on his cheek.

"Good morning, Jack," Sally answered tenderly. They sat in the embrace for a while, and then Sally began to tug his arm. "Come on, my Pumpkin King. We can't stay in bed forever, not for Meddie's sake." Jack nodded, yawned again, and hopped out of bed.

"You're right," Jack said, "We need to begin another day of searching."

Now, on the inside, both Sally and Jack were just about ready to jump off the top of Dr. Finklestein's tower instead of searching some more, but neither one showed it as they got out of bed and pasted smiles on their faces. Jack helped Sally straighten the covers on the bed and fluff the pillows like they always did in the mornings. Then Sally went into the bathroom to go freshen up. Jack looked wistfully after her as she closed the door, but he soon shook it off and went into the kitchen, thinking he would surprise Sally by cooking the breakfast this morning.

Jack whistled an off-key version of "This is Halloween" as he strolled into the kitchen. He approached the counter, running a bony finger down the side of the black granite top as he walked by. He stopped in front of the stove. For a moment, he just stood there, savoring the sanctity of the morning. Then, with the agility only a true Skellington could master, he managed to get out a black skillet, crack some eggs, turn on the stove, and get them frying in a matter of seconds. Jack smiled as he slid the now-cooked eggs onto a large platter.

"Max!" Jack called nonchalantly, "Breakfast is ready!" No answer came. That was strange; Max always came running when it was time to eat.

"Max!" Jack called again, "Did you hear me? I said your breakfast is ready!" Again, the only thing that answered him was silence. Jack, trying to keep himself from fearing the worst, cautiously stepped into the parlor where he knew Max slept every night. There was a Max-shaped lump underneath the red and black quilt on the sofa. Jack drew nearer to the couch, but he was dismayed to find that he couldn't hear any of the customary snores that usually greeted him in the morning.

"Max?" Jack asked. With a single swoop of his hand, Jack pulled back the covers to reveal only pillows and blankets. Max was gone.

Desperately, Jack exclaimed, "No! How could he?" Sally, hearing Jack call out, hurriedly rushed to the living room.

"Jack? What's the matter?" Sally asked. Jack was speechless for a second, but then he pointed at the empty couch.

"He's…he's gone!"

Sally gasped. Her blue stitched hands flew to her mouth, and her prominent eyes were wide in disbelief. Jack was no longer looking at Sally, or the couch. His gaze had drifted to the floor, where he saw a picture of his niece and nephew as children. Carefully, he bent down and picked it up.

"Jack," Sally said as she watched him, "What's that?"

"Look," Jack whispered. Sally looked the picture over, and soon a single, bittersweet tear flowed down her cheek. "Don't you know what this means?" Forlornly, Sally shook her head.

"It means," Jack said, "that Max wasn't kidnapped. He thought that he could find Meddie on his own." Sally brushed away her tears and looked worriedly up at her lover.

"And more likely than not, Victoria went with him," Sally deducted. Quick as a flash, Sally ran upstairs to see what had become of their last guest. Her footsteps, though light, seemed to echo throughout the quiet lobby as she entered the foyer. A sense of stifled fear crept inside her. Cautiously, Sally pushed open the door to the guest bedroom and called Victoria's name.

"Victoria? Are you in there?" Sally asked. As it was with Jack, no one answered. Sally drew closer to the bed. There were a few lumps under the covers, but Sally doubted that they made up Victoria.

Again, Sally softly called, "Victoria?" The rag doll fingered the edge of the quilt for a second, and then she ripped it off the bed with amazing speed. The only things that she found were a few pillows. With a cry of despair, Sally ran out of the bedroom and fled down the stairs where she nearly bumped into Jack.

"Oh, Jack, they're both gone! They could get hurt! They're our responsibility!" Sally cried, "What are we going to do?"

For what seemed like a solid minute, Jack was silent. Then, he smiled a grim smile.

"Nothing," he said. "We aren't going to do a thing." Sally's jaw dropped.

"What? Do nothing? Jack, what are you saying?" Sally stammered, completely appalled at Jack's decision, "Max and Victoria can't just go walking off by themselves! They could get lost in the Hinterlands or--or drown in the lake!"

Jack interrupted, "Sally. Max and Victoria both are getting to the age where they can take care of themselves. They stand more of a chance in the outside world than Meddie does right now. We've got to get our priorities straight, or else things could really take a turn for the worse!"

"I think they already have," Sally said quietly. Jack sighed as he draped his bony arm over Sally's thin shoulders.

In her ear, he whispered, "Don't worry, my dear. We'll find them in no time."

Sally let a faint smile cross her lips as she turned around to face Jack.

"I don't know, Jack. Well…hm. I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out today while we're out looking for Meddie," she said passively as she began to head for the door.

"Wait!" Jack called after her.

Over her shoulder, Sally answered, "What is it? I thought you wanted us to go ahead and start looking!"

Jack appeared guilty for a moment as he struggled for the right words.

"Well, Sally, when I said 'we' were going to look, I really meant 'I' was going to look."

"What are you talking about? I swear, you are making no sense this morning."

"I mean…that…it would be better if you just…" Jack broke off into a large, heaving sigh.

"Sally, I'd like you to stay home today instead of going out searching."

Sally's eyebrows furrowed in confusion and annoyance.

"What? Why ever would I stay home when poor Meddie, Max, AND Victoria are probably being tortured at the very moment?"

Jack countered, "But that's the very reason why you need to stay home! You'll be here to make sure they're alright if they happen to return."

"I really don't think that's going to help, Jack! I thought we agreed that action was going to work here," Sally complained.

"Sally, please stay home."

"No."

"Do it for me? Max? Victoria? Meddie?"

Sally threw up her hands in defeat.

"Fine!" she exclaimed, "I'll stay home if you will quit bugging me!" Jack grinned. Sally was just so darn cute when she got mad. He crossed over to her and planted a kiss on her cheek, making her defiant expression seem less intimidating as she blushed.

"Now, go on. If I can't search, you'll have to work twice as hard for me," Sally warned.

"I'll make sure of it. I'll be back before nightfall, and hopefully with one of our missing persons."

"Bye, Jack."

"Goodbye, Sally. I love you."

"Love you too." And with that, the door slammed and Jack was gone. Sally rolled her eyes, sighed, and sat down at the breakfast table with her head propped up on her palm. That restless feeling was creeping into her again, and she didn't like it one bit. Longingly, she stared out the window at the stormy grey sky. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

A sliver of the jack-o-lantern sun began to shimmer just over the horizon, as Victoria could see through her blurry, bloodshot eyes. She stretched her arms and yawned. She and Max had been walking all night through the Hinterlands, and though the land was flat and easy to cross, Victoria felt more tired than she had ever felt in her whole life. He was still trudging beside her. Suddenly, though, Max's steps began to slow. Victoria watched in confusion as he wobbled a little and then collapsed in a heap on the ground.

In shock, Victoria cried, "Max!" She ran over to him. His skull was face down in the dirt, so she hurriedly turned him over to see what had happened.

"Max, are you okay? Say something!" Victoria said as she flipped him over. The spaces where his empty eye sockets would have been were closed, and his mouth was shut in a grim line.

"Oh, my God! He's dead! Well, he was already dead…hold on."

Before Victoria could ramble on any further, Max opened his mouth and a giant snore erupted out. Victoria fumed.

"Max!" she yelled, kicking him in the shoulder. With a startled jump, Max's eyes shot open, and he scrambled to get to his feet. Max stood there for a moment, looking utterly dazed and a little stupid. Then he finally seemed to notice Victoria standing right beside him.

"Woah," Max said, "What just happened?"

With a smirk, Victoria replied, "You fainted, girly man."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Aw, that bites," Max muttered, kicking a nearby stone. Even though it was too late to save himself any embarrassment, he added, "It was just because we were walking all night. And where has it brought us?" He took a second to gesture around at the barren, gloomy forest that surrounded the two of them. "Nowhere!"

Victoria rolled her eyes as she calmly strolled ahead of him. "Don't be like that. We're almost there; I can feel it," she said. Max started to protest but soon decided against it. There was no use in arguing with her. Slowly, he trudged behind her as she delved deeper into the woods, trying his best not to complain as the sun got hotter in the sky. Noon came quickly. In no time at all the sun was high overhead, sending waves of heat down that collided with the crisp winter air.

Max looked up and squinted at the sun. A long time ago his father had taught him how to tell what time it was by looking at the sun, and he could tell that it was getting to be a little past noon. Some grey clouds were pooling above him, and Max hoped that they weren't an omen of things to come. Unfortunately, they were.

"Can we please rest? Just for a minute or so? We've been walking for hours. Hours!" Max shouted abruptly.

Victoria replied, "Okay." Max stood there, stunned by her words. Victoria had never agreed so readily to anything he had to say.

"What?"

"Go ahead, take a break. I don't mind."

"Wow…okay, thanks, Victoria. I'm just going to sit down here, then, I guess," Max said tentatively, as if Victoria could change her mind at any second (which she could). He found a convenient tree stump, which he promptly sat on and crossed his legs. That was easy. "And you're completely all right with this?"

"Yes."

"Even though my sister and your friend is somewhere out there, cold and lonely, waiting for someone to find her?"

"Yeah," Victoria said impassively, throwing a glance at him over her shoulder. She continued to walk without him.

Max called out, "Hey!" Irritated, Victoria stopped in her tracks and pivoted around to glare at him.

"What?"

"I thought you said you didn't care!"

"I don't."

"Then where the heck are you going?"

"To find Meddie."

"But…"

"I never said I needed your help. Be lazy if you want to; I don't care. However, I am not the kind of person who sits back and relaxes when someone important to me could very well be in mortal danger. If you are, that's okay. I'll be back soon."

Max stared, dumbfounded, as Victoria stormed off into the impossible tangle of twisted branches and limbs. Soon, all he could see was her wavy brown hair swishing behind her and in a few moments that was lost too. Thunder crackled in the distance. Max jumped off of the trunk, startled. Clouds dispelled forked bolts of lightning, as smooth, hot, and dangerous as the devil's tongue. In a blink of an eye, large torrents of rain began to surge from the sky, instantly soaking his sweatshirt and pants and blurring his vision. Cursing quietly under his breath, Max fled off after Victoria.

She was gone. He couldn't find her anywhere. He had run himself ragged all over the blasted forest, but that familiar set of brown, black, and orange was hidden somewhere in this labyrinth of trees. Yelling her name hadn't worked. Rain had filled up his mouth before he had even had a chance to breathe, choking him and setting him into a deeper state of panic. A voice in his mind started to scream in his head. Max stumbled blindly through the rain, trying to ignore the question that the voice was asking over and over again, "Is she lost, or are you?"

* * *

**Musically: _Lesson learned: Don't be lazy. You could just get lost in a forest. So, do I still have some fans? Reviews would be nice..._**


	12. Lost and Found

**Musically: _(wakes up, yawning) Boy, that was a good nap. What's it been, three days since I last updated?_**

**Victoria: _(brushing cobwebs out of hair) TRY FIVE MONTHS. Where have you been?_ **

**Musically: _Five months? Oh, no! The readers must hate me...to make it up to you guys, I've made an extra long chapter to come after this one. And I will start updating a lot more frequently, I promise. I just had to get used to the high school lifestyle. So forgive me, and enjoy!_**

* * *

The rain beat down relentlessly on Max's weary bones as he pushed through the forever oncoming trees, gasping for breath under the downpour. Victoria was nowhere in sight. Civilization was nowhere to be found. For the first time in his afterlife, Max felt utterly and hopelessly alone. He staggered for a second, and then collapsed, leaning against one of the trees for support. Rough bark latched on to the soaked sleeve of his sweatshirt. Max wrapped a skeletal hand around the trunk while he pounded on it once in frustration with the other. It was a hollow tree, so the sound reverberated through the rain and came back to him in an echo. Max felt his strength tapering. He let his arms slide down the trunk, and they brought the rest of his body down with them until he landed in the mud encircling the roots. A terrible urge to scream, yell, cry, or do something rose up with in him, burning inside his bones. Max fought it. There was nothing he could do at this point.

Despondently, Max hurled another fist at the tree trunk, and the sickening sound of splintering wood buzzed in his skull. An echo answered it. Max lifted his head slightly, listening to the sound. He hit the tree again, this time twice. In response came three solid beats, not echoes at all. Max looked straight in the direction that the noises were coming from. No one was there, at least, not close up. His eye sockets narrowed in suspicion. He slowly got to his feet, tried to brush off some of the mud that saturated his black cargo pants, and knocked on the wood four times. Five more knocks answered him, but this time they sounded closer. Max let a half-smile slip over his face as he stepped to another tree, rapping on it six consecutive times with his bony fist. He heard seven more. He broke into a run, hammering on different trees as he desperately darted to wherever Victoria was. It wasn't long before he had her in sight, gathering her up in a hug.

Victoria was shocked to say the least, but she didn't say anything. She could tell he was frightened; his breathing was rapid, and his eye sockets were wide. Something must have gone wrong along the way, seeing as Max was covered in mud and debris from around the forest. Suddenly, she felt guilty about leaving him by himself. She knew that if the nephew of the Pumpkin King was scared, it was serious.

"Are you all right?" Victoria whispered. Max nodded, reveling in Victoria's sweet, flowery, and rain-drenched scent.

"That was scary," he breathed. They waited a few seconds before pulling away from each other, but Max held on to her hands for dear life. "I thought I was going to be stuck out there forever. It started raining, and I thought…I thought I couldn't find you, and if I couldn't find you, then I couldn't find Meddie, and I--"

"I know how you feel," Victoria said. She glanced down at her shoes for a second, and then she looked up at Max with an expression that would have tugged on his heartstrings, had he had any. "Max, I'm so sorry. I was just so angry about Meddie, and I was taking it out on you. You're the only one who can help me get her away from Oogie before it's too late, after all. I wouldn't want to lose you now."

Max dropped her hands in sheer shock. "Excuse me?" he nearly yelled, completely surprised. Victoria raised her eyebrows in astonishment.

"What? What is it?" she said frantically.

Max shook his head in disbelief.

"You mean…you mean that you knew that Oogie had her? What are you talking about? I mean, Oogie's dead, right? So he couldn't have her, I mean…"

"Max, calm down!"

"What? No! I can't calm down! Don't tell me to calm down! This is my sister we're talking about! Who knows what Oogie's doing to her, if he's alive, I mean, and…" Max stopped, his face suddenly hardening in realization.

"You knew," he whispered. Victoria's eyes widened.

"No, Max, you don't understand, it was just-"

"You know where she is? You know who has her? Why haven't you told anyone? What's the matter with you? Meddie's out there, probably starving to death, cold and alone with that- that sack of bugs, and you knew where she was the whole time?" Max yelled. Tears streamed down Victoria's face, blending in with the cleansing rain.

"No, Max! I didn't know!" Victoria shouted through the storm, "I didn't know where she was! At least, not for sure, I didn't. It's complicated!"

"Start explaining!" Max ordered. Victoria took a few deep breaths to compose herself, tucking a strand of soaked black hair behind her ear.

"I kept having these…these dreams. Nightmares, actually. There were two. Oogie was in both, and he said that he wasn't dead and that he was going to take revenge on Jack for trying to murder him. In the second one, he had Meddie in his lair, but it seemed different. I thought that he was in another place, and since we've already searched his old lair, it means that he's moved on. I was right about that. So, no, Max. I don't know where she is, okay? There is one thing he said to me, though…he said, 'You can look for as long as you like, but they will never be found.'." Victoria told him. Max took all this into consideration for a second, suddenly regretting his outburst. Something didn't quite fit.

"Wait a second," Max said, "If he said that 'they' will never be found, then that must mean that there's someone else there with him!"

Victoria answered, "Why do you think that we went to the Hinterlands, Max? We could have gone further into town or even to the human world. I could have taken you there. Didn't you notice that the Black Team was making a longer trip than usual to the Hinterlands? Oogie has them too. I'm sure of it."

Max whispered, "But…but Harley's in the Black Team! How will we find him, Meddie, and the all the rest?" Victoria grinned, making Max confused and a little bit angry. "This isn't funny, you know."

"I know," Victoria replied, "but while you were lost, I found something. Follow me."

* * *

**Musically: _The next chapter's really long. I had to make this excerpt into an entirely different chapter so it wouldn't be too long to read. Okay, you don't need to review for this one if you don't want to, but get your engines ready for the next one!_ **


	13. More Trouble Than She's Worth

**Musically: _Okay, guys, I can't tell you how sorry I am for that hiatus. To make it up for you in an extreme way, here's an incredibly long chapter. Something awful happens to Victoria as well; aren't I just the greatest? Thanks to the few that reviewed, especially my (sort of) new reader, S. L. Bee! Keep 'em coming, guys!_**

**Victoria: _Oh, I forgot all about the torture...this should be fun..._**

* * *

Max rubbed his eye sockets, not really believing what he was seeing. Victoria had led him to a strange circle of trees, each with a different colored picture painted onto the trunks. There was only one picture that he knew really well, (which was a grinning jack-o'-lantern), but the others were a complete mystery to him. There was a pink object shaped like one of the suits in Jack's deck of playing cards. On another, he saw a green, plant-like object with four rounded leaves. A big, patterned egg adorned the tree beside that. There was a tree within a tree, and the smaller one was green and decorated with all sorts of fancy baubles and sparkling ribbons. A fat, brown bird looked as if it had nested in one of the trunks. Lastly, there was a large rocket that was painted red, white, and blue. Max had never been more confused in his life. 

"What is this place?" Max asked as he stepped into the center of the ring. The rain was letting up a little now, so he was able to see Victoria clearly when he talked to her. Victoria seemed preoccupied. She circled each tree in turn, tapping every single root with her foot.

Victoria stopped for just a second to reply, "These are the holiday trees. The paintings on the trunks are actually portals to other holidays besides Halloween. See? That one goes to Easter, and that one goes to Halloween, and that one goes to…well, you get it." She returned to stomping on the roots of the portal trees, and Max stared at her in confusion.

"Okay. What are you doing?" he asked incredulously. Victoria didn't look up this time, but she decided to explain her actions to Max, realizing that she must look pretty weird at that moment.

"You see," Victoria grunted between kicks, "When I was so mad at you, I felt like I had to get away. I started running. I decided to head here. It had been raining for a while, so the ground was all muddy and slippery and I fell. When I fell, I found-" Victoria grinned. She tapped a root, and Max could tell by the sound it made that it was completely hollow.

"This." Victoria bent down and shuffled through the dead leaves that surrounded the hollow root, looking for something. She seemed to stiffen for a second. Her muscles tensed, and in a few seconds, she had unearthed a trap door and opened it, peering inside. Max strode over, amazed.

"Oh, my God! What is it?" he asked, stooping down to look inside. All he saw was black.

"What does it look like?" Victoria retorted, a bit annoyed, "It's a trap door. My guess is that Oogie's new lair is somewhere beneath us. It looks like he's too used to being underground to go anywhere else." Victoria and Max stared into the deep, dark abyss, wondering how far it went and what kind of terrors were hidden inside of it. Soon, Max broke the silence.

"Okay, who's going first?" he asked. They stood in silence for a second, but then Victoria came up with a plan.

"I will," she said.

Max, startled at her sudden determination, spluttered, "Why would you want to go first?"

"Listen," Victoria explained, "I'll go first, and I'll give you the okay when I make sure that it's not too deep. If I don't answer, you go get help. Okay?"

Max shook his head, saying, "I don't think so. Jack would kill me if anything happened to you, and I wouldn't be able to live with myself!" Before Max could say anything else, though, Victoria took the leap of faith. He fell to his knees, grasping the ends of the opening with both hands and looking at the empty hole that had swallowed Victoria, yelling her name.

Her shaky voice replied, "I'm alright." It didn't sound too far away, fortunately.

"Thank God! I'm coming down," Max said as he started to lower himself into the gap.

"Max, wait!" Victoria shouted.

Confused, he asked, "What's the matter? I thought you said you were okay."

Victoria didn't answer for the longest time, but then she replied, "You really aren't going to want to see this."

"I'm surprised you can see anything down there," Max said, perplexed.

"It's awful down here," Victoria said in a voice that was just above a whisper, "It's lit and…they're everywhere…" Max sensed a hint of panic in her voice, and he tried to suppress his worried feelings as he began to descend into the pit.

"I'm coming down, Victoria," he warned. With out a second thought, Max let go of the edges and accidentally tumbled into the hole, landing squarely on his back and getting the wind knocked out of him. He gasped for breath, closing his eye sockets in pain. When the throbbing faded, Max sat up, put a hand to his aching head, and opened his eyes again. Steely grey eyes peered back into them. Startled, he leapt to his feet, only to be met with another pair of tortured, metallic eyes. He turned tail and crashed right into Victoria, who caught him and stood him upright.

"What are they?" Max asked. His eyes still hadn't adjusted to the dim lights, and his head was spinning.

Victoria fearfully replied, "They're statues."

"What?" Max stammered. He took a second to let his vision come back into focus, and when they did he was unpleasantly surprised at what it showed him. In one corner, a werewolf was frozen in a pose where his back was arched, and his muzzle was turned skywards. Max knew that if it could speak, it would be howling. The clown with the tear-away face was also petrified. He was on his signature unicycle, but it looked as though he was about to fall off. Countless of other Halloween Town citizens lined the endless grey corridors that Max and Victoria crept through, including the hanging tree and all his men, the corpse father, and even Harley.

Max was crushed. At the sight of his half-dragon, half-demon best friend in stone form, he almost fell to the floor in shock. He suddenly realized how serious the situation was.

His mouth felt dry and raspy as he told Victoria, "Meddie's being tortured."

Over the years, he had listened to Meddie lament about how she would never be normal, about how she could wake up one day to find her sunglasses off and twelve people turned to stone. Max had always listened, but he had never really heard the distress in her voice. He'd never noticed the anxious way that she would twist her hair around her finger, biting her lip for no apparent reason. At that moment, he realized that she knew all along that something like this could happen. The day she'd dreaded for all of these years had finally come.

Victoria flinched. She had no idea that Oogie would branch out to psychological torture; he never struck her as that smart. As she stole through the blackened hallways with Max at her side, she started to wonder if this was all a setup. She knew it was too late to turn back now. Besides, her conscience would never let her. All she could do now was hope for the best: find Meddie and get the hell out of there. Victoria shook her head. She'd never been one for optimism.

After twisting and turning through a labyrinth of statue-filled hallways, Max and Victoria found themselves overlooking a large clearing, lit by bright neon lights and signs. They both kept to the shadows as their eyes (or lack thereof, in Max's case) adjusted to the blinding colors. Cautiously, they crept up to the edge of the cliff. It was like looking down at a theatre from a balcony seat, but with much worse of a show to see.

It was a large drop-off from the balcony cliff but not enough to kill a person unlucky enough to fall over. If it had been rough and craggy at the bottom, it might have been lethal. Instead the ground was flat and smooth, rather like polished cement. Boiling ponds of lava brewed at random spots in the lair, and steam rose from them, making the surrounding air hazy and acrid. Max and Victoria let their gaze wander slowly north. The farther away the land was from them, the more slanted and mountainous it seemed: small hills evolved into giant plateaus that rested on the horizon. Bats flew around the fluorescent sky. Slot machines and mammoth playing cards decorated the whole landscape, adding a surreal feel to the place. A roulette wheel, painted orange and black, had been propped upright and placed on top of one of the hills.

Smack dab in the middle of all this was Mr. Oogie Boogie himself, pacing the floor. Meddie wasn't far off, her being in a cage attached to the back of a slot machine, just like Victoria's dream. She looked as though she hadn't slept for days. Her clothes were dirty and torn, and there were large, red marks around her wrists. Copper-scaled snakes replaced her hair. They lay limply on her shoulders, barely moving except for the steady motion of their breathing. Her sunglasses, thankfully, were still on her face if not a bit crooked.

Max did all in his power to keep from yelling out. He wanted to know why that criminal was tormenting his little sister and everyone else he cared about. He wanted to jump down and throw Oogie into the lava. There was nothing else on Earth he wanted more at that moment than to magically produce a dagger out of thin air and slice up the burlap sack that made him up and then burn all of the underlying insects. His sadistic thoughts were interrupted by Victoria. She put a finger to her lips, telling him not to make any sudden movements or noises. Before long, Oogie had started another one of his monologues.

"I'm tired of waiting!" Oogie snarled, his lip curling unpleasantly at the corner. Meddie sighed, leaning against the walls of her cage. It seemed as though she had been here for days, and this giant walking sack simply would not shut up. Talking was all he ever seemed to do. If his speeches weren't about his mastermind plan to destroy her family, friends, and take over all of Halloween, they were about how much he hated Jack Skellington. The first few instances had enraged Meddie. She didn't stand for anyone trash talking her relatives. When she had tried to object, however, Oogie had delivered some forceful blows to her, right across the face. She hadn't had much else to say since then.

"I wonder if this is all a waste of my time," Oogie pondered aloud. "No one's come down looking for you since that bumbling bunch of a search party has. Hah, you sure made short work of them, didn't you?" He grinned evilly, throwing a triumphant glance over to his prisoner. Meddie avoided his gaze.

All of those people, every single one of them, had been turned to stone. Oogie tricked them all, especially Meddie. How could she have been that gullible? Oogie had acted so scared, saying that the search party could have her back, that she was more trouble than she was worth. He unlocked the cage. Meddie had practically burst through the door, so happy to see all of those familiar faces. Before she could retreat into their arms, though, she felt a rough, sandpapery one pull her back. She turned to look, knowing it was Oogie, and he swept her sunglasses off of her face. With astounding quickness, he put a hand over her mouth and twisted her arm. She shouted out in pain (it was muffled by his hand), eyes wide. Oogie took advantage of this; he turned her around so that she looked every single one of them in the eye.

Horrible screeches and howls came from the crowd. Turning into stone was as physically painful for the Black Team as it was emotionally for Meddie. After the last, lingering scream had finally disappeared into the smoky air, Oogie pushed her back into the cage, locking the door and throwing the sunglasses to her through the bars. He was careful to avoid her deadly stare. Shakily, she had put them back on, crying on the inside. Crying out loud would just provide him with the satisfaction he didn't deserve. That incident had been at least a day or two ago. Meddie yearned for a small taste of Sally's excellent cooking; she hadn't eaten in what seemed like forever. The thirst didn't bother her as much. She kept her worried thoughts to herself, but she knew that if she didn't get something to eat or drink soon that she would be as dead as her brother. She didn't get to think about this often. Her trains of thought were often rudely interrupted by Oogie, like they were right now.

"Not feeling much like talking, are you?" Oogie taunted. Meddie was determined to ignore him. This man was the only person that she had ever really wanted to turn into a statue, but since he had the key to her prison, there wasn't much she could do. She kept her sunglasses firmly on.

Oogie laughed, saying, "Well, I don't expect you to. You're annoying when you talk, always mouthing off at me and blabbering nonsense about how Jack is going to come rescue you. Well, was that group of idiots his best shot? I hope not. I want him to come down in person; wouldn't that be a treat? Then we could have a real showdown, just like the old times. Ah, memories."

Meddie slid down a little against the wall. She was almost certain that Oogie was going to launch into another reenactment of his epic battle with Jack, where he always skipped over the part where he lost. He instead fast-forwarded to the part where he, the master bug, had not fallen into the lava and had rallied up all kinds of insects to join him. They all collected scraps of burlaps and miraculously managed to sew a new boogie man suit, fill it, and shut the last bit of it so that Oogie could live again. Lock, Shock, and Barrel were at his side in no time, according to him. They didn't hang around the new lair that much, only dropping by every now and then to report how conditions were in Halloween Town. They spent the rest of their time there, so as to not raise suspicions. Again and again, Oogie would relay this information onto Meddie, and she had nothing else to do but listen.

"Your uncle is taking his sweet time, isn't he? For the Pumpkin King, Jack sure is one hell of a coward. You'd think he'd care enough about you to come down and get you. I guess you're just not that important to him, are you?" Oogie laughed cruelly. Meddie had heard enough.

"Stop it!" she yelled, "Stop talking about him like that! He's the bravest man I've ever met, and he's certainly not as much of a coward as you! Uncle Jack wouldn't keep someone locked up underground against their will for some stupid plan that would never work in a million years! He's smarter and better than that! You'll never have Halloween, and you'll never beat him! He's ten times the man you are, Oogie! If you can even call yourself one!"

Oogie, enraged at her speech, stormed up to Meddie. He thrust a hand through the bars of the cage, grabbing her neck and slamming her against the iron.

"Listen here, you little brat," he growled, "You're my only ticket to ruling Halloween and crushing your bastard of an uncle. That's the only reason I'm even keeping you alive. Believe me, you'd be simmering in a nice pot of snake-and-spider stew if this were a perfect world. What I told those saps before you petrified them was right. You are more trouble than you're worth! Perhaps I should just kill you now." He tightened his grip, making Meddie gasp in pain.

"No!" Victoria said involuntarily. She suddenly lost her balance, and Max wasn't able to stop her as she fell over the edge, down to the hard floor below. He was about to go after her when he realized that Oogie most likely hadn't seen him yet. Begrudgingly, he stayed put, praying that Victoria would be all right.

As soon as Oogie heard the crash, he released Meddie. She dropped to the floor of the cage, greedily sucking in air as she tried to catch her breath. Oogie swiveled around. He saw Victoria slowly get to her feet, and a wicked grin slipped onto his face. It wasn't long before boisterous laughter began to echo throughout the lair. Oogie laughed, matching Victoria's angered stare with an incredulous one of his own.

"You're joking. Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Oogie chuckled, "Is this really the best that Jack Skellington has to offer? Victoria Dalton?"

"Where's Meddie?" Victoria demanded. Oogie just laughed harder.

"Weren't you paying attention to anything you saw in those dreams? Bet you thought that was all make-believe, didn't you? Your imagination isn't that exact. She's right where you left her," he said, gesturing dramatically behind him. Forgetting her fury, Victoria's heart leapt, and she rushed up to where Meddie was without a second thought.

"Meddie!" she exclaimed, letting out a sigh of relief. She'd found her. Meddie didn't look half as thrilled to see Victoria as Victoria was to see her. Meddie stared up at Victoria in disbelief. Her eyes widened behind the sunglasses, sensing the danger that was about to come. Meddie found her voice quickly, though it rasped and rattled shakily as she spoke.

"Get out," Meddie whispered. Victoria arched her eyebrows, surprised.

Victoria laughed slightly, saying, "What? Meddie, it's me, Victoria! I'm going to get you out of here." Before Meddie could say anything else, Victoria turned to face Oogie.

"You let her go this instant! You don't have any right to keep her locked up in here!" Victoria yelled. To Victoria's surprise, Oogie produced the key from behind his back, swinging it on its hook tauntingly.

"You want her back?" Oogie chuckled, jamming the key into its hole, "You can have her." Victoria's jaw hung open. Oogie guffawed, letting the cage door swing wide open, fully revealing its frightened captive. Victoria, not believing what she was seeing, eyed Oogie through slits.

"What's the catch?"

"Catch? There's no catch. Just…go on and take her. The little brat has been more trouble than she's worth," Oogie said, grasping Meddie by the arm and yanking her out of her prison. The familiarity of this situation scared Meddie, and she shut her eyes out of instinct. Victoria was quick to get a hold of Meddie's arm.

"Come on, Meddie, we're going home," Victoria said dazedly, astonished that Oogie would let Meddie go so easily. However, Meddie wasn't moving. "Meddie, let's go! Come on, before he changes his mind."

"Get out while you have the chance! Before he can use me again!" Meddie yelled, tears leaking from the corners of her closed eyes. Victoria stood there, frozen from shock. She didn't want to leave?

Oogie used Victoria's confusion to his advantage. In a quick second, he had knocked off Meddie's sunglasses and twisted her arm to the point of breaking. Meddie screamed in pain, eyes wide open. They met with Victoria's. Victoria's heart seemed to shudder as she gazed into Meddie's eyes, which were as grey as a coming storm and filled with just as much turmoil. Immense pain started to course through her.

It happened quite slowly. Victoria didn't even realize what was happening until she saw the pink flesh of her ankle turn to a stony grey. With every inch that the granite overtook, pain came, and soon the feeling faded away into nothingness. She was turning into stone. Unwillingly, a faint scream of terror and agony escaped her throat. There wasn't much she could do at this point, except…that was it. If she gave Max a clue about the cure, then he could get her and the rest of the citizens out of this awful situation. Her thoughts raced. Then, they formulated themselves into strained words.

"Page eighty six!" Victoria yelled to the hidden Max, "There's a cure! You have to find it and come back!" She gasped in pain; the rock had reached her fingers. "Remember, it's page eighty-six! Without it, we're all finished!" Incredible agony racked her chest, cutting off her breath and her voice. The world faded to black for Victoria, and a statue stood in her place. Meddie sobbed. Victoria's last words had been lost to her, drowned out by the sound of her own tears and Oogie's laughter.

Oogie shoved Meddie back into the cage, laughing harder than ever, "Looks like I can add another one to my collection! This was my best plan yet, by far. Halloween will be mine in no time."

"How can you do this?" Meddie cried desperately.

"Easy, m'dear," Oogie said, "I'm the Boogie Man. It's my job." Her screams and his laughter mixed into a haunting melody in the atmosphere in the lair, and Max couldn't take any more. He was running out of the main chamber in no time at all, Victoria's clue ringing in his skull. After he had found his way back to the trapdoor, he ran through the Hinterlands, never stopping for a breath. The moon was hanging low in the sky by the time he had arrived at Skellington Manor, knocking weakly at the door.

Jack opened the door, delighted to see Max.

"Max! Dear God, where have you been? Where's Victoria?" Jack asked. At mention of Victoria's name, Max completely broke down, falling into Jack's arms and letting out dry, shaky sobs. Jack, fearing the worst, brought Max inside and sat him down on the couch. Sally was called over, and she consoled Max as well as she could. After about fifteen minutes, Max had collected himself. The night proved to be long and difficult as the story of Meddie's whereabouts and Victoria's early demise was told.

* * *

**Max: _I...HATE...YOU!_**

**Musically: _Don't hate me! This makes the story so much more suspenseful! Why don't you take out your rage by figuring out what page eighty-six means?  
_  
Max: _...Still hate you._ **


End file.
